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Endeavor
Endeavor Brazil

A2M Value Menu

Everything Endeavor Brazil offers global scale-ups and Country Managers entering the Brazilian market — explore each track below.

🤝

Strategic Connections

Direct introductions to mentors, ambassadors, and members who already master the Brazilian market.

🌐

Community & Events

A seat at the table — take part in community events and groupchats for updates on the network!

🏛️

Corporate & Institutional Partnerships

Access to the corporate and financial infrastructure that makes operating in Brazil easier from day one.

📚

Knowledge & Resources

The market intelligence and real-world playbooks that shortcut the learning curve.

Successful expansion stories

Three companies that opened operations in Brazil, told by the people who led the entry. From Section III of the Brazil Market Expansion Playbook.

Francisco Simon
Clara
Francisco Simon
Country Manager, Brazil

“You can’t treat Brazil’s complexity as an excuse — it’s a fact. Build your plan around it.”

Founded
Mexico, 2020
Brazil entry
2021, almost simultaneous with Mexico & Colombia
Segment
B2B fintech — corporate cards and expense management
Status
Unicorn; leading MasterCard B2B issuer in Latin America. Team across 17 countries; HQ moved to Brazil in late 2023
Why Brazil mattered
—

An early-adopter market, open to innovation and new technology.

—

Any company positioning itself in Latin America has to account for Brazil, on market size and speed of adoption alone.

—

In late 2023 Clara moved its headquarters to Brazil, anchoring global functions locally.

Challenges and adaptations
—

Operational costs. High labour and administrative costs were real, and treated as facts to plan around rather than excuses.

—

Talent. Hard at first, then accelerated by unicorn status and a remote-first DNA that allowed hiring across 17 countries.

—

Regulation. Three countries, three regimes. Clara chose to own compliance and the customer experience instead of outsourcing issuing.

—

Product localisation. Brazil-specific features — digital accounts with Pix, boletos and TED — that exist in no other Clara market.

—

Segmentation. Tested microentrepreneurs (MEIs), learned quickly they were not the target, and pivoted to startups, mid-market and then enterprise.

—

Landing lean. Started with coworkings and BPO for payroll and admin; PR was outsourced before being brought in-house.

Top advice for entrepreneurs expanding to Brazil
—

Hire local. You need a team on the ground — remote-only or fly-in strategies don’t hold up long term.

—

Be compliant from day one. Don’t cut corners on regulation; pick the right partners early.

—

Leverage the ecosystem. Use the available “as-a-service” providers to accelerate your landing.

—

Treat complexity as a fact, not an excuse. Plan with it in mind, but don’t let it block execution.

—

Build social capital. Relationships beyond work — happy hours, informal contact — matter deeply here.

Moritz Wolff
Insider
Moritz Wolff
Country Manager, Brazil

“To succeed in Brazil, you need to understand people — not just the market.”

Founded
Turkey
Brazil entry
2020
Segment
Growth management platform — martech, AI-driven personalisation
Footprint
Multiple regions across Europe, Asia and Latin America
Why Brazil mattered
—

Brazil is the largest Endeavor office worldwide and one of the most attractive markets for international expansion.

—

Insider treats it as a critical part of its geo-expansion strategy: scale, high demand for digital solutions, and global enterprises that want local, personalised engagement.

Challenges and learnings
—

Cultural nuance. Brazilian customers are highly relational and often indirect — saying “no” is difficult — which makes sales cycles more social and relationship-driven than in other markets.

—

Hiring. Local talent with a genuine ownership mindset is hard to find, especially for a company new to the country.

—

Beyond demographics. How people negotiate, express interest, delay, and build trust matters as much as the market data.

—

Global and local at once. The strategy needs both the global playbook and local adjustments for Brazilian business culture.

Top advice for entrepreneurs expanding to Brazil
—

Don’t rely only on market data — invest time in understanding Brazilian cultural traits.

—

Anticipate relational dynamics in sales; relationships often precede contracts.

—

Be deliberate about hiring for ownership, even when it takes longer.

—

Insider’s case shows non-obvious cultural factors can shape expansion as much as product or pricing. Integrate cultural intelligence into the go-to-market plan, not just the numbers.

Stelleo Tolda
Mercado Libre
Stelleo Tolda
Board Member, Mercado Livre

“Brazil is one of the few countries that is both huge and still growing — that’s what makes it irresistible.”

Founded
Argentina, 1999
Brazil entry
November 1999, three months after Argentina
Early expansion
Eight Latin American countries within one year
Brazil today
Largest market — over half of total transactions and revenue. Mercado Pago (2004) is now a full digital bank
Context and early vision
—

Born with an international mindset: Marcos Galperin, Hernán Kazah and Stelleo Tolda designed a platform meant to run regionally from day one.

—

Brazil opened three months after Argentina, followed by Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru and Uruguay.

—

A centralised technology architecture hosted in the U.S. let the company expand fast with tight coordination — long before cloud computing existed.

Key challenges in Brazil
—

Finding product-market fit. Inspired by eBay’s auctions, the team noticed sellers setting “buy now” prices identical to their starting bids. That behaviour turned auctions into fixed-price sales and became the real PMF moment — pioneering the marketplace model before eBay itself adopted it.

—

Trust and reputation. Online shopping was new, so the company built a seller reputation system so buyers could purchase from verified, well-rated sellers.

—

Payments and inclusion. Low credit card penetration and limited banking access led to Mercado Pago in 2004, intermediating between buyers and sellers with boletos and direct transfers.

—

Talent. Digital marketing and e-commerce skills didn’t exist locally. The company trained its own workforce and was among the first in Latin America to buy Google Ads directly in Mountain View, before Google had regional offices.

—

Regulation. Traditional auctioneers argued online auctions should follow the same laws as physical ones; the company had to prove its model was different and required no public certification.

—

Taxes and bureaucracy. The burden is less about rates than the time and resources compliance consumes.

—

Consumer litigation. The judicialisation of consumer issues is uniquely Brazilian — large service providers keep teams dedicated to small-claims suits (contencioso de massa) because consumer courts are free and easy to access.

Top advice for entrepreneurs expanding to Brazil
—

Go local, deeply. Hire local leaders who understand both Brazilian culture and international business — “someone who has swum in different waters.”

—

Build for complexity. Plan for taxes, legal process and regulation from day one; they are part of the cost of doing business here.

—

Invest in trust. Reputation, consumer protection and local payment methods are non-negotiable.

—

Train and grow talent. Be ready to develop local capability where the expertise is still emerging.

—

Use Brazil’s openness to innovation. Strong tech adoption makes it a testing ground for new models and products.

In the A2M pipeline

Global scale-ups we are working with, or have worked with, on their entry into Brazil. Hover to pause, click to visit.

Contact

Got a question? Don't hesitate to get in touch!

Whether it's about a connection, an event or a partnership, contact us and we'll point you to the right person in the network.

Endeavor
Paula Chapchap
Entrepreneur Experience
paula.chapchap@endeavor.org.br
WhatsApp: +44 79 2614 8875
Powered by ENDEAVOR — Access to Markets, Brazil
Endeavor
Strategic Connections

Connections worth your time

Tell us what you're tackling right now in Brazil and we'll match you with mentors, ambassadors, and investors who have done it before.

Strategic Connections

How it works

You share the specific challenge you're facing - which could include GTM, sales, hiring, regulation, channel strategy, etc., and our team of Growth Partners curates a shortlist of  mentors, ambassadors, or Endeavor Entrepreneurs with direct experience in that specific problem. After that, we set up either 1:1 mentorship calls or a round-table conversation, in case the topic at hand is a hot one with which other leaders are also struggling.

Most connections are scheduled within 2–3 weeks of your request. When relevant, we also open the door to local investment funds and institutional partners aligned with your sector.

What to prepare

Come with a specific ask, avoiding a general approach, for instance "help me understand pricing in Brazil" gets a much better match than "help me with GTM." A short company overview (stage, business model, current traction) helps us find the right fit faster.

On our end, we prepare a company brief that informs mentors on the firm´s current stage and other details that contribute to a fruitful and effective call. Confidentiality, vulnerability, and openness are the key pillars for these connections, ensuring they align to Endeavor´s Network of Trust and Pay it Forward values - so come prepared to share your own story as these connections work best as a two-way exchange, not a one-way ask!

Investor Relations

Investor Introductions

Raising in Brazil means knowing which funds actually write cheques at your stage, in your sector, and for a foreign-incorporated company — and reaching them through someone they already trust. Endeavor sits in the middle of that map: the funds listed under the Investors toggle are ones we work with directly, from pre-seed and seed players like Maya Capital, Canary and ONEVC, through multi-stage funds such as Kaszek and Valor Capital Group, to growth and late-stage investors including General Atlantic, Riverwood, Prosus and Advent.

Once we understand your round — size, stage, use of proceeds and timeline — we shortlist the funds whose thesis genuinely fits and introduce you to the partner who owns that thesis, not a generic inbox. Where relevant, we also bring in mentors and Endeavor Entrepreneurs who have raised from that fund so you hear how the process actually ran before you take the meeting. We don't broker or take fees on any round — the introduction is part of the support, and how far it goes is up to you and the investor.

What We Believe

Endeavor's Values

Our values guide our brand and mission — how we represent our organization and network, and the choices we make. They are our founding principles.

  • Entrepreneur First
  • Network of Trust
  • Go Big
  • One Endeavor
  • Pay It Forward
  • Always Agile
Read more about our values on endeavor.org →
Contact

Got a question? Don't hesitate to get in touch!

Whether it's about a connection, an event or a partnership, message me directly and I'll point you to the right person in the network.

Endeavor
Paula Chapchap
Entrepreneur Experience
WhatsApp: +44 79 2614 8875
Endeavor
Community & Events

Join the Community

Country Managers, operators, and founders scaling in Brazil — meeting monthly, in person and online.

How to join

Once you´ve onboarded to the Endeavor Brazil network, you'll be added to the Access to Markets´ community Whatsapp group, where announcements, introductions, and peer conversations happen. From there, joining any event on the calendar below is as simple as replying to the invite, with no extra approval needed for open events.

Vertical forums (Tech, Operations, Revenue, and Strategy) are matched to your role and company stage; your Growth Partner will loop you into the ones that fit.

Gatherings and Events

Five ways of getting involved with the network, each with their own edge towards different interests.

Open · monthly

Fireside Chats - AI & Beyond

Case studies on topics such as AI and others following a talk format, with major brands and big names on the entrepreneurial world. Past guest speakers represented firms such as Prosus and Google DeepMind.

Format: a moderated duo rather than a solo talk, with a mentor or entrepreneur mediating, sometimes several speakers from the same company. Roughly 30 minutes of presentation, the rest reserved for Q&A.

Invitation only

Private Lunches & Dinners

Curated meetings with members of the network and beyond, focused on a range of different topics including capital, talent, and market expansion. These are scheduled based on demand and shared interests — recent editions include a curated lunch with Artur Grynbaum (Grupo Boticário) on the CEO-to-chairman transition, and ambassador-hosted dinners in São Paulo and Fortaleza built around a single founder's case.

A few per year

Masterclasses

A small number of sessions each year in which the leader of a large Brazilian company takes the network through how they actually run it, technically deeper than a fireside chat, and recorded for the network to access them afterwards.

The 2026 cycle runs with AgiBank, TOTVS, and closes with Christian Gebara, CEO of Vivo.

Regional

Regional Gatherings

Endeavor entrepreneurs are spread across the country, and most of the network's density sits outside São Paulo. These gatherings bring the local network together in its own city — founders, alumni, mentors, ambassadors and regional funds in one room.

2026 editions have run in Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Florianópolis and Fortaleza, timed to coincide with the region's own ecosystem events.

Flagship

Flagship Events

The two moments each year that convene the whole network at once. Day1 is one of Brazil's largest events for entrepreneurial storytelling, putting founders who built the country's highest-impact companies on stage, including Insider, LiveMode, VTEX and Pismo.

The Scale-Up Annual Gathering (SUPVAG) convenes the Scale-Up cohorts and the fund's investor base; the 2026 edition was held in September in São Paulo.

BOOST VISIBILITY

Sponsor a Flagship event

Companies entering Brazil through A2M can sponsor events such as Day1 or the Scale-Up Annual Gathering. It's one of the fastest ways to put your brand in front of the country's founders, executives, mentors and investors.

Sponsorship can include brand presence on stage, in stands, and in event materials. Packages are shaped with the Endeavor team around your expansion goals.

Closed formats

The Four Forums by Function

Groups curated by role, where the conversation drills down to the operational level.

Tech Forum

CTO / CPO or technical CEO


Opening up the dashboards: architecture, stack, and how things were put into operation practically. 

Operations Forum

CHRO / COO / CFO


Organisational design, hiring profile, and cultural adoption, with room for compliance and legal debates, which tend to be the biggest barriers to market expansion.

Revenue Forum

CMO / CRO


Sales and marketing automation, SDR agents, growth with AI. New frontier: three out of four entrepreneurs claim revenue as today's biggest knowledge gap.

Strategy Forum

CEO

Culture and how company strategy shifts once it integrates AI. The CEO´s role as an individual contributor. Building a CEO/C-level office. 

EVENTS

What's coming up (beta version)


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Contact

Got a question? Don't hesitate to get in touch!

Whether it's about a connection, an event or a partnership, message me directly and I'll point you to the right person in the network.

Endeavor
Paula Chapchap
Entrepreneur Experience
WhatsApp: +44 79 2614 8875
Endeavor
Corporate & Institutional Partnerships

Explore Partnerships

Banking, cloud credits, workspace, and event visibility — the operational layer of landing in Brazil.

Partner tracks

This track connects you to four types of partners, depending on what's hindering your operation.

1

Big Tech x GTM Programs

Partners such as Oracle, Google Cloud, AWS, JumpCloud offer credits, technical support, and joint go-to-market motions for scale-ups entering the market.

2

Financial and cross-border partners

We work with BTG Pactual, Citi, and Bank of America help structure FX, international payments, IOF (tariffs on financial transfers), and cash-flow operations for a foreign entity operating locally.

3

Workspace and corporate network access

Through partners like Cubo and Woba, we can support you and your team with fast and credible work places instead of building an office from scratch.

4

Event visibility and sponsorship

Puts your brand in front of network Endeavor´s events and flagship gatherings — including the Annual Meeting and Day1.

How to get introduced

Once you´ve shared with us which tracks match your current bottlenecks (banking setup, cloud infrastructure, workspace, or brand visibility), we'll connect you with the right partner contact directly, rather than routing you through a generic intake form.

Continuous partnerships (an ongoing relationship with a bank or a Big Tech program) are prioritized over one-off transactions, so come ready to describe your medium-term plan in Brazil and we´ll support you throughout this journey!

Note: Some partner tracks (like event sponsorship) depend on the event calendar, so timing may shift a few weeks depending on what's coming up.

Contact

Got a question? Don't hesitate to get in touch!

Whether it's about a connection, an event or a partnership, message me directly and I'll point you to the right person in the network.

Endeavor
Paula Chapchap
Entrepreneur Experience
WhatsApp: +44 79 2614 8875
Endeavor
Knowledge & Resources

Access the Playbook

The Market Expansion Playbook — Brazil, plus the case studies and data behind it.

Playbook

What's inside

The Market Expansion Playbook: Brazil distills everything a global scale-up needs before landing, including economic and regional overview, demographics and consumer behavior, talent and hiring rules (CLT vs. PJ), tax regimes, business structures, and a full cultural navigation guide. Further, these range from negotiation style to meeting etiquette. It closes with three real expansion case studies (Clara, Insider, Mercado Livre), told directly by the Entrepreneurs and Country Managers who lived through market entry.

Access the Brazil Market Entry Report — the single most efficient way to shortcut months of trial-and-error: everything a market enterer needs to know before their first week of operations in Brazil, in one document.

Link to the report

Case Studies

Why they matter

These aren't illustrative examples pulled off the internet, rather they're built the way Endeavor builds any research inside the network: from a pool of 40+ candidate interviews, the team narrows down to 7 cases deep enough to hold real weight, prioritizing diversity of sector and internationalization path over volume.

Each case is validated directly with the Founder or Country Manager involved and cross-checked with Endeavor's global offices before publication, therefore honouring its credibility stamp. For a Country Manager landing in Brazil, a case study is proof that someone who started exactly where you are later figured out the specific decisions that worked and the ones that didn't.

Market Data

What we study

Beyond the Playbook's static data, Endeavor runs its own primary research inside the network. Most recently, a study mapping AI maturity and AI-related hiring across Brazilian companies was carried out and developed from roughly 10 strategically chosen profiles (mature entrepreneurs, technical mentors, and a deliberate mix of sectors and gender); the outcome inludes cases that blend a technical lens with a Founder's lens rather than abstract statistics. The goal is to capture where Brazilian companies actually stand on AI adoption (not where they claim to stand), surfacing real cultural and operational shifts inside the businesses studied.

This kind of proprietary, network-sourced data is what lets us tell you where the market really stands on a given topic, instead of recycling generic industry reports that lack depth on specific markets. 

Report: AI in Brazilian Scale-Ups
Report: Going Global - International Journey of Brazilian Scale-Ups
Report: Brazil Tech Diaspora 

Reference Checks

A seal of approval on senior hires

Hiring senior people in Brazil is where most market entries stall. Whether it's a Country Manager building their first local team, a C-level filling a direct report, or a founder closing on a key hire, CVs and LinkedIn all look the same. What separates a strong hire from an expensive mismatch is what former colleagues say off the record, and that only travels through people who have worked with them.

When you are closing on a candidate, we look across the Endeavor network: accessing over 340 mentors and 390+ founders and operators across Brazilian scale-ups in search for people who have actually managed, hired, or worked alongside them, to then put you in touch directly. Our superpower here is our neutrality, with no conflict of interest or inclination to either side.

What it covers

C-level and senior leadership hires: Country Manager, CFO, CRO, CTO, CHRO, plus Board and Advisor candidates.

How to ask

Send us the name, the company history, and the role you are hiring for. We come back with who in the network overlaps with them and make the introduction.

Ground rules

Conversations are confidential and off the record on both sides. We don't source candidates or act as a search firm, rather we validate the ones you have already found.

Contact

Got a question? Don't hesitate to get in touch!

Whether it's about a connection, an event or a partnership, message me directly and I'll point you to the right person in the network.

Endeavor
Paula Chapchap
Entrepreneur Experience
WhatsApp: +44 79 2614 8875
Strategic Connections

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Strategic Connections

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Strategic Connections

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Strategic Connections

Investors

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Community & Events

WhatsApp Group

Scan to request access to the A2M Country Managers group. The invite is reviewed before you're added.

WhatsApp group invite QR code
Or open the invite link

Open your camera and point it at the code.

Community & Events

Events

Fireside Chats

For whom: open to the entire Brazil network
Content: significant cases of how Endeavor Entrepreneurs have successfully achieved milestones that serve as inspiration.

Private Lunches & Dinners
Curated meetings with members of the network and beyond, focused on a range of different topics including capital, talent, and market expansion. These are scheduled based on demand and shared interests.
Forums

TECH 
For whom: CTO/CPO or technical CEO
Content: Technical forum with open dashboards -- architecture, stack, operations


    OPERATIONS 
    For whom: CHRO / COO / CFO
    Content: Org design, hiring, cultural adoption, back-office


    REVENUE 
    For whom: CMO / CRO
    Content: Sales and marketing automation, SDR agents, growth


    STRATEGY 
    For whom: CEO
    Content: Executive decisions taken by CEOs

    Corporate & Institutional Partnerships

    Big Tech

    Credits, technical support, and joint go-to-market motions for scale-ups entering the market, so you land on infrastructure that is already paid down rather than building it from scratch.

    Partners
    Oracle Google Cloud AWS JumpCloud
    Corporate & Institutional Partnerships

    Banking & FX

    Help structuring FX, international payments, IOF (tariffs on financial transfers), and cash-flow operations for a foreign entity operating locally.

    Partners
    BTG Pactual Citi Bank of America
    Corporate & Institutional Partnerships

    Workspace

    Fast, credible places for you and your team to work — plus access to the corporate networks attached to them — instead of building an office from scratch.

    Partners
    Cubo Woba
    Knowledge & Resources

    Playbook

    Everything you need to know before your first week operating in Brazil —> hiring rules, tax regimes, business structures, consumer behaviour and cultural navigation. All in one document.

    Open the report
    Knowledge & Resources

    Case Studies

    Seven deep expansion cases, narrowed from 40+ interviews and validated with the founder or country manager who lived them. Examples of others who started exactly where you and who figured it out, sharing decisions that worked and others that didn't.

    Knowledge & Resources

    Market Data

    Our own research inside the network. Most recently mapping AI maturity and AI hiring across Brazilian companies, understanding where the market actually stands and not where it claims to.

    Knowledge & Resources

    Reference Checks

    Closing on a senior hire? We find people in the network who have actually managed or worked alongside your candidate, and put you in touch. We encourage candid, off-the-record conversations instead of providing a formal reference letter alone.