{"id":11262,"date":"2012-06-08T23:04:55","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T21:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/06\/facebook-backer-turns-his-attention-to-brazil\/"},"modified":"2012-06-08T23:04:55","modified_gmt":"2012-06-08T21:04:55","slug":"facebook-backer-turns-his-attention-to-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/facebook-backer-turns-his-attention-to-brazil\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook backer turns his attention to Brazil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Sarah McBride and Esteban Israel<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

SAN FRANCISCO\/ SAO PAULO, June 7<\/span> (Reuters) – One of
\nFacebook’s earliest investors has turned his attention to
\na distant market with a small but lively start-up scene: Brazil.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Kevin Efrusy, the partner at Accel who spearheaded the
\nfirm’s initial $12.7 million investment in Facebook back in
\n2005, has made several new investments in Brazil over the last
\nyear or so.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Efrusy, who declined to be interviewed for this article, is
\nperhaps the most ambitious of a growing number of U.S.-based
\nventure capitalists who see opportunity in a country with a
\nlarge population, a fast-growing middle class, big growth
\npotential and political stability.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Redpoint Ventures and BV Capital created a Sao Paulo-based
\nfirm, Redpoint eVentures, earlier this year. Benchmark Capital
\nand General Atlantic have invested in Peixe Urbano, a
\nGroupon-style deals site. Insight Venture Partners has invested
\nin several Brazilian companies, including discount-travel site
\nHotel Urbano and, alongside Accel, in handcrafted-goods
\nmarketplace Elo7.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Venture capital is an industry that is just being born in
\nBrazil and the trend is that it will go very quickly from
\nmillions to billions,” said Haroldo Korte, a Sao Paulo-based
\nmanager at Atomico, a fund created by Skype co-founder Niklas
\nZennstrom.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Last month, Sao Paulo was one of the hottest stops for Geeks
\non a Plane, a series of tours organized by venture capitalist
\nDave McClure of Mountain View, California-based 500 Startups.
\nThe tour brought more than 40 tech junkies, entrepreneurs and
\ninvestors to Brazil.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

There are still plenty of obstacles. The Brazilian economy
\nhas been barely growing in recent quarters, and start-ups must
\ncontend with high taxes, comparatively limited access to
\nearly-stage funding, and the absence of organized programs to
\nfoster entrepreneurship. Entr epreneurs with regional aspirations
\nmust work in Spanish as well as Brazil’s national tongue,
\nPortuguese.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

There are cultural barriers as well. Failure carries a
\nbigger stigma in Brazil than in the United States, making
\nentrepreneurs less aggressive, says Ted Rogers, a partner at
\nArpex Capital in Sao Paulo. The community of engineers,
\ndevelopers and experienced entrepreneurs is also small, if
\ngrowing.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sarah McBride and Esteban Israel SAN FRANCISCO\/ SAO PAULO, June 7 (Reuters) – One of Facebook’s earliest investors has turned his attention to a distant market with a small but lively start-up scene: Brazil. Kevin Efrusy, the partner at Accel who spearheaded the firm’s initial $12.7 million investment in Facebook back in 2005, has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-11262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}