In record numbers, the 2020 mapping carried out by Unicamp Innovation Agency registered more than a thousand daughter companies, as enterprises whose founders have or had a link with the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) are known, the majority (92%) by students or former students of the University. In total, 1.038 daughter companies were registered in the Agency's database, 929 of which are active and, in the last year, together earned R$8 billion and generated 33.315 jobs.
“We have no doubt that Unicamp’s daughter companies have a major impact on the country’s economy in terms of revenue, job creation and, in times of pandemic, they bring technologies and knowledge that change the way people organize their lives and, the companies, their forms of operation. Our daughter companies are clear examples of this, and also of how work of Unicamp in training professionals with critical thinking and an entrepreneurial profile makes a difference in the country.”, comments Professor Newton Frateschi, executive director of Inova Unicamp, about the importance of mapping.
Frateschi analyzes that the impact tends to be amplified in the coming years, since the 2020 survey showed that 89,7% of daughter companies are micro or small companies and many tend to grow and position themselves in the ecosystem based on the example of others large daughter companies of Unicamp as it is the Movile Group. Founded by former student of the Unicamp Computing Institute (IC) Fabricio Bloisi, the group has become a leader in the technology sector in Latin America and today directly employs more than 4,4 people, in addition to impacting the lives of 1 billion people. people through their company's applications. Currently, the Group is made up of Movile, iFood, MovilePay, PlayKids, Sympla, Wavy, Zoop and Mensajeros Urbanos.
Location concentrated in the State of São Paulo
The mapping of Unicamp's daughter companies found that 94,7% of them are located in the Southeast region of Brazil, mostly in the state of São Paulo (87,3%). When the selection is made in the state of São Paulo, it is clear that the concentration is in the Metropolitan Region of Campinas (59,9%), “which demonstrates the University's competence in attracting and training the best talents, who will be agents of transformation of our region”, celebrates the executive director of Inova.
Additional information in this year's survey is that the entrepreneurship rate - represented by the number of companies founded per year - has been growing, in positive response to the University's work to encourage entrepreneurial culture and innovation. Of the 223 new companies registered since the last mapping, 64% were founded in the last five years. Such work is promoted through the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency, which is responsible for several programs and a discipline that boosts the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, and by the Unicamp Technology-Based Business Incubator (Incamp), which is responsible for 7 % of Unicamp's daughter companies, founded by former students and non-students of the University,
The mapping also points out that the relationship of many daughter companies with Unicamp is not limited only to the training of new entrepreneurs, but continues after the company is founded. For example, in 2020, 243 daughter companies indicated that they interact with Unicamp in joint research projects, mentoring, sponsorship, consultancy and other types of partnerships.
One of these partner daughter companies is QuintoAndar, which for the second consecutive year sponsored two research grants, without restriction on theme and with the only requirement that the research can positively impact society, for master's students at IC, a unit of origin of one of the co-founders of the digital real estate platform, André Penha.
“For me, it is obvious that my time at IC Unicamp contributed to the development of several of my skills. But it is on a daily basis, tackling intense problems, that we realize the debt we owe to the institutions that got us here. If it weren't for the universities I've been to, there probably wouldn't be QuintoAndar", comments Penha about the initiative which is more than a thank you, "it's a bet on the development of an institution that can leverage the next cycle of evolution of the economy and society by through science.”
In order to compile this and other important data from Unicamp's daughter companies, such as investment and operations abroad, Inova Unicamp made the consolidated data available with cases of daughter companies in the unprecedented ebook format, the free download is available here.
“Reaching the milestone of more than a thousand registered daughter companies deserved not only a celebration, but special attention. For some time now, we at Inova Unicamp have wanted to produce a report dedicated to mapping daughter companies, in order to record this important activity, which allows us to shed light on one of the most visible results in terms of the impact of a university like Unicamp with society: the creation of new companies through our former students.”, explains Frateschi about the news.