May 2021 – Indicator Capital, the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) and Qualcomm Ventures LLC announced today the launch of the early-stage venture capital fund Indicator 2 IoT FIP Fund, with a first-close of R$ 240 million, focused on Internet of Things (IoT) and Connectivity in Latin America. The fund has seven major investors: in addition to the creators of the public bid, BNDES and Qualcomm Ventures, additional funds were raised from Banco do Brasil, Multilaser, Motorola, Lenovo and Telefônica Ventures / Vivo, among other institutional and corporate investors.
Aimed at startups that develop services and products related to IoT and Connectivity, the fund promotes the National IoT Plan, accelerating technologies from strategic sectors for the country, such as Agriculture, Health, Industry 4.0, Smart Cities and Mobility. With this funding, Indicator Capital becomes the largest Brazilian venture capital manager in Latin America specializing in IoT.
According to Thomas Bittar, one of the three founding partners of Indicator, “the closing of the product was disputed, and we were unable to accommodate all investors. For this reason, we prioritized the most strategic to help us accelerate the formation of the national IoT ecosystem. Our objective was to launch a fund with at least R$ 120 million, but the high demand made it possible to close the fundraising with twice the original amount”, he adds.
The fund is the result of a joint initiative by BNDES and Qualcomm Ventures, investment arm of Qualcomm Incorporated, a world leader in next-generation wireless technologies that, in December 2019, launched a public call for tenders to select a manager to structure the newly created investment fund. Together, BNDES and Qualcomm Ventures made an initial investment of R$ 85 million.
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