BayBrazil Corporate Members Banco Itau, Redpoint e-ventures and Silicon Valley Bank host San Francisco Mayor in São Paulo
Here is the program’s description by Andy Tsao, Silicon Valley Managing Director and BayBrazil Board Member:
SF Mayor Ed Lee and the city’s LatinSF office, which helps Latin companies set up in city, have organized a week long delegation to Brazil this week. Our visit will cover three days in São Paulo and two days in Rio. Mayor Lee, the first Mayor of SF to ever travel to Brazil stated this was best time to visit and build relationships. The city of SF has always had a strong Latin influence and is promoting SF as a welcoming place for Brazilian companies to set up and do business.
Our meetings included Alpargatas (the parent company of Havaianas), Banco Originale, Zendesk Brazil, Brasscom, and FIESP. Entrepreneurs and VCs featured prominently on Tuesday as SVB hosted a lunch for the Brazil VC community to meet Mayor Lee. In the evening we co-organized a networking event with RPEV and Cubo at Cubo’s great coworking and event space. We had a presentation from Zendesk, and I enjoyed moderating a VC panel with Manoel Lemos, RPEV, Eric Acher, Monashees, and Antoine Colaco, Valor. The discussion covered the current investment environment and the role that SF and the Bay Area play in the Brazilian ecosystem. The mood was still very positive for creating great companies despite the current environment. They are convinced in the coming few years there will be billion dollar exits in Brazil and that they are contributing to making Brazil a stronger country.
Andy Tsao, Managing Director, Silicon Valley Bank, BayBrazil Board Member
