The presentation to the public of the entrepreneurs linked to Unicamp's daughter companies that won the four categories of the Entrepreneur Award took place during the 18th Annual Meeting Unicamp Ventures. The largest meeting of Unicamp's daughter companies took place on October 19th and during the event, it was announced which representative of the companies was elected Entrepreneur of the Year. The 7th Unicamp Entrepreneur Award was held by the Innovation Agency Inova Unicamp in partnership with the group of entrepreneurs Unicamp Ventures.
Access the article: Mikio Kawai Júnior is elected Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 at Unicamp
The winning companies will receive a trophy in the highlighted category and their entrepreneur is also competing for another trophy as Entrepreneur of the Year. In the case of this last category, the award offers a series of advantages to the winner, such as visibility for their company , new business opportunities and networking.
In addition to trophies and recognition in the University's entrepreneurial ecosystem in their area of activity, the Entrepreneur of the Year will have access to 30 hours (six months) of consultancy in Strategic Innovation Management, offered by the sponsor Scope Innovation Consulting, in addition to another 30 hours (six months) of Strategic Financial Advisory, offered by the sponsor Antoniense Finance and Business.
The communications supervisor at Inova Unicamp and curator of the award, Kátia Kishi, defends the importance of the initiative, which publicizes, honors and honors good initiatives led by University graduates.
“The University has a fundamental role in training highly qualified professionals for the job market and in encouraging the formation of new businesses that impact society. And the Entrepreneur Award is a form of recognition from Unicamp and also to publicize success stories of companies formed by students and former students and companies graduated and incubated at the University, showing other students and new entrepreneurs paths to a successful career said Kishi.
Companies that won the Entrepreneur Award and their representatives competing for the Unicamp Entrepreneur of the Year trophy:
Socio-environmental Impact: IQX - Innovate Qualyx
In the Socio-Environmental Impact category, Unicamp's daughter company IQX - Inove Qualyx won. The business, founded in 2011, is managed by Silmara Neves, a postgraduate from the Chemistry Institute (IQ) at Unicamp. The company aims to give a new meaning to plastic, offering solutions that enable the recycling of multi-material packaging and that promote circularity. Among its products are compatibilizing additives, developed to improve the mechanical properties of recycled materials. They help differentiate products and increase added value in recycling. One of the benefits is the feasibility of recycling, for example, food packaging, which, consequently, generates a reduction in the disposal of plastic to landfills, dumps and the environment, contributing to achieving sustainability goals and generating a new source of income for collectors. According to IQX, 40% of the company's revenue already comes from the sale of compatibilizing additives, which demonstrates the economic and financial viability of this product line.
Innovation: OpenSense
The winning daughter company in the Innovation category operates in the information technology sector. OpenSense's founder and CEO is Antônio Marcos Marcon, a doctoral student in scientific and technological policy at the Institute of Geosciences (IG) at Unicamp. She developed a platform to mitigate the fuzzy innovation, a problem associated with the complexity of management and the obsolescence of data on innovation ecosystems. O data hub combines technologies big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence and strategic decision support systems with econometric algorithms, generating digital and georeferenced mappings on the National Innovation System (SNI). The objective is to boost scientific development and open innovation initiatives, providing integrated views, in real time, on these networks, organized by type of organization, geographic areas, technological skills and economic sectors, contributing to maximizing the results of interaction actions and collaboration between researchers, entrepreneurs, corporations, investors and governments.
Female Leadership: Join-T Body and Movement
Under the influence of Luiza Ambrosio da Rocha, a graduate of the Faculty of Physical Education (FEF) at Unicamp, the company that won the Female Leadership category brings social issues into the business: an individualized training studio that promotes movement beyond aesthetics. Join-T Corpo e Movimento was designed to be a space that presents physical education in a more welcoming way for different types of bodies. Among the studio's concerns are the alignment of social issues with training studies. The former student's relationship with Unicamp professors allowed the company to find approaches, both for assessment and training, that are more welcoming and empathetic to cis, trans and non-binary audiences. The company also created a social plan with a differentiated value so that low-income, trans, overweight and socially vulnerable indigenous people have access to physical exercise and functional training supervised by professionals in the field.
Greater Growth (scale-up): Safira Holding S/A (Safira Group)
The Safira Group, initially Safira Energia, is among Unicamp's largest daughter companies in terms of revenue, maintaining a mark of more than R$1 billion in the last two years. The conglomerate of companies, founded in 2008, operates in the Free Energy Market, directly employing 130 people. These numbers made the business win the Highest Growth category (scale-up) of the prize. In mid-2017, Grupo Safira entered solar energy generation at scale. Unicamp's daughter company was the first commercial company to invest in a solar farm, together with a startup later acquired by the group. The investment allowed the validation of subscription energy, a model for selling clean, renewable energy at a lower cost, without customers needing to invest in infrastructure. The group has as one of its founders the entrepreneur Mikio Kawai Júnior, master in Economics from the Institute of Economics (IE) and PhD in Civil Engineering from the Faculty of Civil Engineering (FEC) – currently the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Urbanism (Fecfau) –, both from Unicamp.
