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Brazil National Committee of Startup Support Initiatives (Comitê Nacional de Iniciativas de Apoio a Startups)
What are the main aims and objectives?

The Brazil National Committee of Startup Support Initiatives aims to address the fragmented landscape of federal government startup support programs by creating coordinated policy and unified access mechanisms. Rather than creating new programs itself, the Committee functions as an inter-agency coordination body designed to articulate existing federal initiatives directed toward technology-based emerging companies and innovative entrepreneurs. The Committee's primary objectives include articulating and coordinating public initiatives of the federal executive power directed toward startup support; promoting exchange of experiences and best practices in startup support initiatives across government agencies; making available a digital platform containing a registry of all public startup support initiatives providing entrepreneurs with centralized access to government programs; and collecting and evaluating information about startup support initiatives and results obtained. The broader strategic aims reflect government commitment to simplification and deburaucratization of entrepreneur access to government resources, administrative efficiency in public administration, strengthening of Brazil's startup ecosystem, and contribution to innovation and technology sector development. By consolidating fragmented initiatives under a unified policy umbrella with transparent, centralized information access, the Committee aims to reduce information asymmetries that previously prevented entrepreneurs from understanding available support options.

How does the program work?

The Committee operates as an inter-agency coordination mechanism composed of representatives from ten federal government entities and agencies:​

The institutional structure includes representatives from the Secretariat for Industry Development, Commerce, Services and Innovation of the Ministry of Economy; the Secretariat for Entrepreneurship and Innovation of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications (MCTIC); the Central Bank of Brazil; the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES); the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq); the Brazilian Agricultural Research Enterprise (Embrapa); the Financier of Studies and Projects (Finep); the Brazilian Industrial Development Agency (ABDI); the Brazilian Agency for Export and Investment Promotion (Apex-Brasil); and the Brazilian Service for Support to Micro and Small Enterprises (Sebrae).​

Leadership and Coordination: The Committee operates under rotating annual coordination alternating between the Ministry of Economy and MCTIC, with the Secretariat for Entrepreneurship and Innovation of MCTIC holding initial coordination. Each institution appoints one main member and one alternate to the Committee. The coordinating institution manages an Executive Secretariat handling administrative functions.​

Meeting Structure: The Committee holds quarterly ordinary meetings with quorum constituted by a majority of members, with extraordinary meetings convoked by the Coordinator or upon request from at least three members. Members in Brasília participate in person; members in other Brazilian states participate via videoconference.​

Technical Consulting Group: The Committee established a Technical Consulting Group of up to ten representatives from the private sector and civil society organizations with expertise in innovative entrepreneurship, serving one-year terms with possibility of one reappointment.​

Primary Deliverable: Startup Point Portal: The Committee's main operational achievement is the Startup Point digital platform, officially launched in November 2020. This unified registry aggregates information from approximately 45 government programs providing startup support through 12 federal institutions. The portal enables entrepreneurs to discover relevant programs by filtering based on company maturity stage: Ideation (learning and business concept development), Validation (prototyping and proof-of-concept), Operation (project execution and commercialization), and Traction (growth and market expansion).​

For each program, the portal provides program descriptions, objectives, eligibility criteria, benefits, investment amounts per startup, application timelines, and selection procedures. Annual reporting requirements mandate that the Committee Coordinator submit annual reports to relevant ministers in early December, documenting Committee activities during the fiscal year.

What is the overall cost?

No available information.

How was it implemented?

The Brazil National Committee of Startup Support Initiatives was formally established through Decree No. 10,122, published November 21, 2019, signed by President Jair Bolsonaro and published in the Federal Register (Diário Oficial da União) on November 22, 2019. This Presidential Executive Decree reflected the federal government's strategic commitment to entrepreneurship, deburaucratization, and innovation promotion during 2019.​

The Committee's creation occurred alongside other entrepreneurship-focused policy initiatives, including Complementary Law No. 167/2019 (Inova Simples) passed in April 2019, which created a simplified special regime for startup procedures and business opening/closing. The Committee was conceived to address the recognized gap that dozens of fragmented startup support initiatives made it difficult for entrepreneurs to navigate available resources and discover relevant programs.

Initial Setup (November 2019-2020): The Committee was inaugurated with initial coordination by the Secretariat for Entrepreneurship and Innovation of MCTIC. Member institutions designated representatives to the Committee, which began coordinating quarterly meetings. A technical consulting group was formed to advise on policy development, and planning commenced for the Committee's primary deliverable: a unified digital platform.

Portal Development and Launch (2020): The Committee identified the need for a digital platform to achieve its mandate of making available a registry of public startup support initiatives. Working collaboratively, member institutions contributed information about their respective startup programs. The Startup Point portal was officially launched in November 2020 during the 30th Anprotec Conference on Entrepreneurship and Innovation Environments, incorporating information from approximately 45 government programs managed by 12 federal institutions.

Portal Design: The platform incorporated stage-based filtering systems enabling entrepreneurs to find programs matching their company's development level (ideation, validation, operation, traction). Standardized program information presentation was developed to ensure consistency and enable easy comparison across initiatives.

Continuation and Evolution (2020-Present): The Committee has maintained quarterly meetings to coordinate ongoing activities. Annual reports are submitted to relevant ministers as mandated by the Decree. The portal has been continuously updated with new programs and information. The Committee continues work to identify gaps in startup support and recommend new initiatives addressing emerging needs.

What impact has been measured?

The Committee's most significant documented impact is the creation and operation of the Startup Point digital platform, which successfully unified approximately 45 government startup support programs from 12 federal institutions into a single accessible platform. This achievement filled a documented gap where entrepreneurs previously had no single source for comprehensive information about all federal government startup support options. The portal has made available 797 current and future trade fair participations information, 11,683 exhibitor company profiles, and searchable product and service catalogs across 49 countries.

What lessons can be learned?
  • Coordination without integration: The Committee aggregates information about programs but does not integrate application procedures, streamline eligibility requirements, or enable single applications to multiple programs, meaning entrepreneurs must still engage separately with each initiative despite improved information access.​
  • Absence of systematic impact measurement: No mechanism exists to track whether entrepreneurs access programs through the portal or what outcomes result, preventing evidence-based judgment of the Committee's effectiveness and limiting accountability infrastructure.​
  • Limited scope beyond federal level: The portal captures federal government programs but may not include state and municipal startup support initiatives, private sector accelerators and incubators, or international funding opportunities, constraining comprehensiveness for entrepreneurs seeking broader support options.​
  • Coordination without consolidation authority: The Committee coordinates information sharing but does not have authority to recommend program consolidation, eliminate redundant initiatives, enforce alignment of program objectives, or reallocate resources toward priority areas, limiting its ability to address fragmentation structurally.​
  • Limited private sector influence despite civil society representation: While the technical consulting group incorporates private sector views, this participation is limited to up to 10 representatives relative to Brazil's startup ecosystem size, with non-voting status limiting civil society influence on Committee decisions.​
  • Rotating coordination creates potential inconsistency: The annual alternating leadership structure between Ministry of Economy and MCTIC, while distributing responsibility, may create inconsistency in priority-setting, strategic direction, and momentum for long-term initiatives.​
  • Portal utility and adoption uncertain: Despite the unified registry, no evidence documents that entrepreneurs actually use the Startup Point portal when seeking support or whether improved information access translates into increased program utilization.​
  • Lesson on coordination vs. integration: The Committee demonstrates that aggregating information about fragmented programs is achievable through inter-agency coordination, but meaningful reduction of fragmentation requires deeper program integration including unified application procedures and coordinated eligibility requirements—information aggregation alone does not eliminate access barriers.​
  • Annual reporting not publicly transparent: Although the Decree mandates annual reports to ministers, these reports do not appear to be publicly available, limiting external accountability and public understanding of Committee activities and outcomes.

CURATED BY

Leonardo Freitas

Deputy General Coordinator of Business Environments
Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications
Brazil