Photo: AMAZ pre-acceleration (Note: all participants were tested and immunized against Covid-19)
Six high-impact businesses operating in the Legal Amazon will receive investments from the accelerator
AMAZ impact accelerator concluded the process of selecting the businesses that will be accelerated and invested in 2022.
The six businesses work with innovative solutions for the development of products and services in strategic value chains for the conservation of the Amazon in areas such as reforestation, carbon projects and forest conservation, oil production, food and community-based tourism.
Those selected were BrCarbon, Floresta SA, Inocas, Mahta, Soul Brasil and Vivalá. The businesses operate in the states of Acre, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia and Roraima.
The six will undergo an acceleration process in 2022 and will receive an initial investment of R$ 200 thousand, with the possibility of reinvestment (follow) of another R$ 400 thousand at the end of the process. The group was selected from among 156 businesses enrolled in the 2021 Call promoted by AMAZ.
“We were very impressed with the quality of the business, the scale of impact we can achieve, and the potential to practically build a new economy allied to forest conservation in the Amazon.”, assesses Mariano Cenamo, AMAZ's CEO.
The approximate impact potential of the six selected businesses, between five and ten years, includes more than one million hectares of preserved forests, more than 700 thousand tons of avoided carbon emissions annually, 3,700 hectares of recovered forests, hundreds of benefited families and injection of around R$ 30 million into local communities.
Know the business
► BrCarbon = Climate Tech Brasileira dedicated to forest conservation and ecological restoration specialized in carbon projects. With a highly qualified team, it uses innovative strategies and cutting-edge technology to accelerate, multiply and consolidate carbon and forest management projects in Brazil.
► Floresta SA = Implements regenerative models of agroforestry production at scale, with a portfolio of 10 agricultural and timber crops. In addition to bioeconomy products, it brings to the financial market an opportunity for direct investment in agroforestry in the Amazon, with a target return of 17% per year.
► Inocas = Its objective is to generate an alternative to soy and palm oil, leveraging the macaúba production chain as a source of sustainable vegetable oils. The company's pilot plant is located in the Cerrado biome region of Alto Paranaíba, MG, and will have implemented, by the end of 2021, the planting of 2,000 hectares of macaúba in an agroforestry system in partnership with family farmers. With the entry into AMAZ, the company will expand its operations to the Legal Amazon in 2022.
► Mahta = Foodtech that operates in the area of food supplements produced with ingredients predominantly from Amazonian communities. It aims to generate innovation and value, in addition to reducing negative environmental impacts, through production chains with the participation of local communities, a model that can be replicated for systemic change in the food industry. Simultaneously, it will deliver differentiated nutritional value to consumers, boosting the conservation and regeneration of the Amazon.
► Soul Brasil Cuisine = Its mission is to present products with ingredients from Brazilian biodiversity – especially the Amazon – sustainable, organic, vegan and free of artificial substances for Brazil and the world. It has been in the market for almost three years, present mainly in emporiums and supermarkets on the Rio and São Paulo axis, in addition to exporting to the United States and Europe. The products have organic certification.
► cheers = Conducts expeditions in Brazilian Conservation Units through community-based tourism. It promotes the country's socio-environmental development in an innovative way, bringing together experiences with communities and nature in expeditions. It has already engaged more than 900 travelers from 10 countries and injected R$ 627,000 directly into traditional communities by purchasing community-based services.
About the selection process
Call 2021 promoted by the accelerator received 156 entries, of which 12 were selected to participate in a pre-acceleration process that took place in November, from a face-to-face meeting in Presidente Figueiredo, Amazonas.
Entrepreneurs and female entrepreneurs worked on the Model C methodology, seeking to better understand the functioning of their businesses and the positive impacts they generate or are capable of generating, in addition to reflecting on how they can improve their business models as well as impact indicators and narratives that can add even more value to them.
The immersion provided a lot of exchange and connection, and the group built its own business models and matrix of positive impacts, while generously contributing to the construction of other business models.
The performance of the businesses in the pre-acceleration process, together with the steps taken by the AMAZ team to better understand the performance of each one of them and the performance of pitches in December, with the participation of investors and partners, were the factors that determined the choice .
About AMAZ
The impact accelerator AMAZ is coordinated by Idesam (Institute for Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Amazon), and has a hybrid financing fund (blended finance) of R$ 25 million for investment in impact businesses over the next five years, the first focused exclusively on the region.
Its founders and strategic partners are Fundo Vale, Humanize Institute, ICS (Instituto Clima e Sociedade), Good Energies Foundation, JBS Fund for the Amazon and Partners for the Amazon Platform (PPA). It also has a wide network of partners such as Move.Social, Sense-Lab, Mercado Livre, ICE, Costa Brasil, Climate Ventures and private investors.
