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Denmark Brazil: I will just ask you for an introduction, and I'd like to ask
Who are you and what do you do?
Rolf Andersen: Yes, my name is Rolf Andersen, I'm the CEO for Exact Brazil, we have a capital
fund based on Danish investors, investing in Brazilian companies.
The project started about a year and a half ago when Exact Invest Denmark asked if I was
interested in setting up a Private Equity fund in Brazil based on their current base
of investors in Denmark and with the aim of investing in two Brazilian companies. The
investors behind Exact are typically family offices, professionals and semi-professional
investors, typically, business people who sold off their businesses and and are now
taking care of capital, rather than running another business, and they see Exact Invest
as an alternative investment to the stock market. The majority of Exact's fund is in
real estate funds , that's basically how the company started, but about a year and a half
ago they came up with the idea of opening a capital fund to invest in other types of
businesses in Brazil.
Denmark Brazil: Ok, that sounds good.
Rolf Andersen: And since then, we have been working on establishing other funds...We closed
the first fund May of 2013, and from that fund we have so far made two investments,
one is in a Danish company called Danmagi, that provides software solutions to the Hotel
industry, like wi-fi solutions and cloud based solutions, and technology that provides the
hotel to brand themselves for the hotel guests much better.
Denmark Brazil: This is like the services we see in the airports right?
Rolf Andersen: The old technology present in Brazil, was developed 15 years ago, which
happened before the increase in the numbers of tablets and smartphones. So the current
hotels solutions are not really able to handle the ammount of devices that the guests are
bringing to the Hotels in Brazil. Most people travel with a laptop, or other devices. So
the number of devices connecting through the wifi systems in hotels and airports,etc has
increased dramatically in Brazil.
Denmark Brazil: So, they are focused in Hotel solutions right?
Rolf Andersen: Yes, primarily hotel solutions, but not only. Danmaggi is also in talk with
the Olympic comitte in Denmark, for instance to cover Rio in 2016
Denmark Brazil: They will need it (sighs)
Rolf Andersen: They surely will...
Denmark Brazil: Great, and how about the other company you are investing in?
Rolf Andersen: The other company is a company up in Fortaleza, northeastern part of Brazil.
This is a company focused on building and developing and implemeting finantial systems
to finantial markets. This is quite a specialized, software, where they represent the software
builder, and they basically customize some packages to the finantial industry, so for
instance they have as customers Bovespa, the stock exchange in São Paulo, or some of the
largest stocks brokerage companies, most of the internationa banks are clients of CPQI
are customers.
Denmark Brazil: Wow, I had no idea that this sort of service existed..Great.
You know, I see Brazil as a great hub of technology. There are so many things being produced here,
startups emerging, I'd like perhaps if you could share your point of view on that, because
I'm quite sure that a lot of Danes are still no aware of this potential, right?
Rolf Andersen: It is true, very true. There is a high degree of entrepreneurship in Brazil.
And I thinks that has increased tremendoulsy over the last few years. I came to Brazil
in 2003, for my first time, so I have been here for a few years now, and I think in the
last years, specially the last 4 years, this picture has changed a lot. There are loads
of young Brazilians leaving schools, and now understand the opportunities that Brazil offers.
These young generation are more minded towards taking entrepreneurial paths rather than taking
the traditional company carrer path. I have seen studies done at universities in Brazil
where they go out and ask what is your preferred path, where would you like to make a carreer?
And a higher percentage of Brazilians are saying, I want to be my own boss, or I'd like
to work for my own company, when compared to North American or Europeans youngster.
Today in Brazil, there is a higher percentage of Brazilian willing to become entrepreneurs.
So we are seeing a lot of organizations coming up to support this new environment, such as
non profit organizations, some by governmental funds, other thorugh universities, which function
basically as meeting places for entrepreneurs to exchange ideas and get support for whatever
prroject they are working on. There is also a lot of private accelerators,
icubators which has come both as national or international companies to help these Brazilian
entrepreneurs.I believe that we surely are going to see loads of great companies coming
out of this time. You might be aware, but there is an institute
in Denmark, called Institute for future studies, which recently opened their office in São
Paulo, and one of their main reasons for them having done so is that they also believe that
many trends will be coming out of Brazil. Today is still very much propagated as in
the USA or Europe, to some extent Asia, that are initiating the trends...This institute
strongly believes, and I agree, that a lot of these trends are going to come out of Latin
America, and star spreading to the rest of the World. Perhaps you will see some global
companies being created in Brazil.
Denmark Brazil: I totally agree with what your saying, and specially if you take a look
at the publicity market in Brazil. Brazil is very well known for gaining prizes in Canne,
for instance...so why not the other sectors as well? I mean, I believe there is a whole
trend emerging in this countr, in which i believe is something wonderful to see all
this wave of great things happening...
Denmark Brazil: What would you say about the moment is living right now? How do you see
this country?
Rolf Andersen. This is a very important actually, and it is the main reasons why we are here.
We believe that there are going to be loads of business opportunities created in Brazil.
And we can bring out our international experience and help out these companies to grow and expand
internationally. I believe this is a very important trend for Brazil these days. Also
I think you have to live in Brazil to understand what is going on. It is difficult to explain
to foreigners who have never been here. Brazil isn't just one country.Brazil is comprised
by a lot of countries within the same country. Varieties betwen the north and south, the
east, the coast, the cultural diversity in this country is massive. So when you look
at Brazil as one market, you are probably missing the point, and if you look at the
headlines,or the growth of the country as a whole, is not very impressive. It is actually
quite disappointing, but that covers a lot of nuances, it covers a lot segments that
are actually growing a lot, and therefore it covers a lot of opportunities geographically,
that you will miss if you just look at Brazil as one market.
And if you think of Brazil of a country with 200 million people, and now a rising middle
class that is consuming more and more..The market is just huge. I believe a focused strategy
will work a lot better, specially for Danish companies where they typically in a global
scale are not the biggest players in the market. So by choosing either a geographical location
or a niche market you will get a lot further than trying to sell to everybody.
Denmark Brazil: Precisely. I remember when I was at the Consulate we used to some market
researches for some companies, who would sell, I don't know how would you call this (there
was a para sol in front of me) but, this ( small object in the umbrella), so niche markets
are great markets for Danish companies, and I mean, I believe there are great opportunities,
but sometimes these companies they are very small, so they need some sort of help, perhaps
a good partner in Brazil.
Rolf Andersen: This is a difficult market to get in.You need the right connections,
you need to find the right local partners, for whatever you want to do. Even the largest
companies, iun my opinion, they need to team up with local organizations of some type.
Denmark Brazil: Sure, and what would you comment on the regulamentory environment? Could you
give us a picture of it?
Rolf Andersen: Yeah. It is very complicated(sighs)
Denmark Brazil: Challenging...(sighs)
Rolf Andersen: There is a lot of Red Tape, and you have to find your way to live with
it.
Denmark Brazil: Brazilian way?
Rolf Andersen: Yeah...Brazilian way, but on the other hand you can also go..there is a
line between bureocracy and corruption. You don't need to cross that line. You can work
within the rules, you can work with burocracy and if you take time to understand, dig a little
deeper, you don't need to go and cross the line and to bribe no one. I think that there
is a fair model of corruption in Brazil, unfortunately, but I also think that as a foreign company
you can always refer to the fact that "we are foreigners", our foreing policy, strictly
says that we do not engage in any sort of corruption, we do not do bribes, we do not
do anything under the table, and thats not going to get us where we want.
So it is possible to avoid that.
Denmark Brazil: Well ( I almost forgot Rolf's name) thank you for your time, thank you for
sharing your view with Denmark Brazil