SÃO PAULO, Aug. 6, 2020
/PRNewswire/ -- QINTESS, one of the top ten major IT companies in
Brazil, announces an investment of
R$ 10 million over the next five
years to support and foster entrepreneurship, diversity, and social
innovation in Brazil. Vale do
Dendê, an entrepreneurial innovation center based in the city of
Salvador, will be the first
organization to receive funding. Resources for training and seed
capital will be provided to young Afro-descendant-led startups and
businesses focused on cultivating diversity and creating growth in
this area.
This national initiative, spearheaded by Qintess, seeks to
increase the number of entrepreneurs in the tech industry who are
of African descent, who are from the LGBTI+ community and who are
disabled, as well as from other marginalized communities. It also
seeks to help small businesses make the transition to digital in
order to remain viable during and after the Coronavirus pandemic.
Collaborative businesses, gaming companies and digital startups
will be supported with training, with global and national
mentorship, as well as with access to seed capital.
Qintess has selected Vale do Dendê as their strategic partner in
the social business space because of their successful track record
with regard to organizing and supporting entrepreneurs from
marginalized communities. They are one of Brazil's leaders among businesses focused on
social impact. Vale do Dendê focuses on the Northeast of
Brazil, one of the regions
currently in the most need of investment. Furthermore, this
partnership will result in the establishment of new innovation hubs
mirroring the ones currently in place at Vale do Dendê. These will
exist in every capital where Qintess is located, including São
Paulo, Rio de Janeiro,
Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Curitiba and Fortaleza.
As part of this strategic partnership, Qintess will be
sponsoring Vale do Dendê to ensure that the organizational culture
and vision created by its founders is cultivated and given the
opportunity to grow and expand. "This initiative is coherent with
my philosophy. It is fundamental for the companies to develop and
implement concrete actions instead of only talking about diversity
and inclusion", says Nana Baffour,
CEO, Chairman and Culture Chief Officer of Qintess.
Qintess' aims to have 2,000 young people from marginalized
communities virtually trained in coding (Java, .Net, and Python)
within the next five years. The company also looks to accelerate
500 companies by leveraging professional mentors with great market
experience as well as their relationships with investors. Fifty of
these companies will have access to Qintess' company fund of R
$2.5 million as seed capital to scale
their businesses.
According to Lauro Chacon,
Vice-President of Qintess Human Capital, this initiative meets the
company's strategies in considering ESG practices in order to
promote sustainable growth. "We are an organization oriented to
people and we use best environmental, social and corporate
governance practices to guide our business. When establishing a
partnership such as this one, it is important to reinforce our
commitment to promoting diversity, to speeding up innovation and to
contributing to all of our clients, collaborators and stakeholder
ecosystems, as well as to society as a whole.", he says.
Qintess' executives and its team of collaborators will bring new
digital technologies and management techniques to increase Vale do
Dendê's scalability. Valde do Dendê has been operating an
acceleration program since 2018. This initiative, which operated
out of a physical hub inside one of the biggest bus and subway
stations in Salvador, has already
benefitted 90 startup companies.
"It is a moment of celebration and pride! I have no doubts that
all of the legacy built by Vale do Dendê for Salvador and Brazil's ecosystem will be strengthened by
this partnership.", says Ítala Herta, Vale do Dendê's
co-founder.
"This partnership with Qintess confirms our bet on the
importance of Salvador's outskirts
in particular, and of the Northeast in general, in the development
of a creative economy and of innovation in Brazil. I believe the country will not fulfill
its destiny of being a great nation if it is not capable of
integrating young Afro-Brazilians into sustainable development",
says Rosenildo Ferreira, co-founder and Innovation and Marketing
Director of Vale do Dendê.
"We are very happy to be entering in this agreement with
Qintess. We believe that because Qintess is a great technology
company with great investment capacity, it can support our dream
and allow it to thrive for many years, expanding on the work we
have started," says Paulo Rogério Nunes, co-founder and Executive
Director of Vale do Dendê.
Teams involving Qintess' and Vale do Dendê's executives and
collaborators are beginning their joint activities this month. The
plan is to implement more than one round of acceleration and of
training courses in the technology sector for young people, which
will be in operation until the end of the year.
According to Roberto Silva,
Qintess Regional Director for The Northeast and Minas Gerais, that
partnership makes Vale do Dendê the protagonist in digital
transformation for the region. "We are very proud of this
partnership because we are going to bring together social
entrepreneurship and cutting-edge technology to promote responsible
practices."
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SOURCE Qintess