Let’s start this edition in a very different way. Unique. First, take your cell phone out from your pocket and open your favorite music app. Once there, type “tecnobrega“. That’s right: t-e-c-n-o-b-r-e-g-a. Pick a playlist, press play and let the ideas swing from one side to the other. And believe me, they will shake up not only your thoughts, but also your state of mind… Because in this epiphany, our destination is one: the Amazon.

And while a song by Joelma, ex-Banda Calypso, plays –  “eu vou tomar um tacacá, dançar, curtir, ficar de boa/Pois quando chego no Pará, me sinto bem, o tempo voa” (“I’m going to have a tacacá, dance, enjoy, stay cool/Because when I get to Pará, I feel good, time flies”)  -, we’re going to tell you what happened at the first Bioeconomy Amazon Summit (BAS). Yes, the first one. Because KPTL and the United Nations Global Pact – Rede Brasil will promote six more editions over the next few years. In other words, there will be an Amazonian date until 2030, yes.

Held on August 1, 2024, at the Hangar Convenções e Feiras da Amazônia, in Belém, capital of the state of Pará, one of the city’s main event venues and which will also host part of the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 30, BAS brought together around 700 people, including government leaders, investors, companies, entrepreneurs, academia, non-governmental organizations and indigenous people.

Here, it is worth emphasizing. BAS, for all purposes, data vegna, kicked off on the evening of July 31 with a dinner combining ancestral flavors and knowledge, in a cool hotel in the city, sponsored by Mercado Livre. By the way, what a menu…!

But Mercado Livre wasn’t the only one involved in this endeavor. BAS also received a wonderful contribution from heavyweights of the Brazilian economy. Or bioeconomy (we’ll explain this terminology later).

Starting with the State Government of Pará, Sebrae Amazônia, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and APEX Brasil. In addition to them, the Federal Government, B3, Banco da Amazônia, Copastur Viagens e Turismo and institutional partnerships with the Association of Social-bioeconomy Businesses of the Amazon (Assobio), Climate Ventures, Empreende Amazônia, Cubo, Jornada Amazônia and the innovation consultancy Kyvo. In the media area, Exame and Rede Amazônica were the partners.

“I would like to celebrate this moment and thank you, because mobilizations like this contribute decisively to the consolidation of this new era that, on one hand, reduces deforestation, fights environmental illegalities, fights illegal mining and creates a window of opportunity for land use, for nature-based solutions to generate green jobs, sustainable jobs, jobs that are in line with what we want for the Amazon,” says the governor of the state of Pará, Helder Barbalho.

Helder Barbalho, governor of the State of Pará, during the Bioeconomy Amazon Summit. (Photo: Gil Silva)

“I am very happy that you have made the decision to come to the Amazon, to bring investors and entrepreneurs from the Southeast and South of the country. And I would like to ask once again, Carlo (Pereira), you as a representative of the Global Pact, and Renato (Ramalho, from KPTL), that we can now make more connections to attract investors and entrepreneurs to Pará and the Amazon, proving that we can create transformative content,” adds José Mauro de Lima O’ de Almeida, Secretary of Environment and Sustainability of Pará.

Business Arena

One of the “flowers of the cupuaçu” of BAS was the Entrepreneurial Arena, with the participation of more than 70 startups. And the focus, of course, was the bioeconomy. Now, it is time for us to know what this bioeconomy actually and legally means.

Entrepreneurship Arena at the Bioeconomy Amazon Summit. (Photo: Gil Silva)

First, there is not a single understanding of the concept itself, because it is about evolution, although there are several converging elements in this idea, in the view of many researchers and entities. It is a broad umbrella. But, as the Institute for Advanced Research (IPEA) explains in the study “Brazil 2025 – Scenarios for Development”:

“… in general, the bioeconomy can be defined as an economy in which the basic pillars of production, such as materials, chemicals and energy, are derived from renewable biological resources. In this ‘new’ economy, the transformation of biomass plays a central role in the production of food, pharmaceuticals, fibers, industrial products and energy. The difference between the bioeconomy of the past and the current one is that the latter is based on the intensive use of new scientific and technological knowledge, such as that produced by biotechnology, genomics, synthetic biology, bio-computer sciences, and genetic engineering, which contribute to the development of biologically based processes and the transformation of natural resources into goods and services.”

Now that we are familiar with the terminology, let us delve deeper into this necessary bridge between the ancestral knowledge of native people and funding.

Just to give you an idea, the bioeconomy could generate an additional revenue of USD 284 billion per year by 2050 in Brazil, according to the Brazilian Bio-innovation Association (ABBI).

This calculation encompasses a series of joint actions in which agribusiness and the food, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and cosmetics sectors, among others, take a prominent position.

In Pará, specifically, 30 products from the so-called social-biodiversity chain produced a revenue of BRL 5.4 billion and generated 224,000 jobs, according to a study by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), in partnership with the IDB and Natura.

“Many of our startups carry out activities directly connected to the Amazon biome or to sustainability. We have a history of working on the climate and environmental agenda that dates back to 2013, with FIMA Fund, by investing in companies that prioritize sustainability in their business model,” says Renato Ramalho, CEO of KPTL. Ramalho is referring to the Environmental Innovation Fund (FIMA), created in 2013 by BNDES and managed by KPTL, which invested in 11 companies focused on sustainable solutions – it is the first fund in Brazil focused on innovation and the environment.

Renato Ramalho, CEO of KPTL, during the Bioeconomy Amazon Summit. (Photo: Gil Silva)

KTPL‘s activities were further strengthened in 2022, with the launching of the Forest and Climate Fund, in partnership with Fundo Vale, which will direct BRL 200 million to startups linked to the bioeconomy and climate change, such as carbon credits, forest restoration and logistical and social inefficiencies in large biomes.

More recently, there was another initiative, the launching of a specific fund for bioeconomy: the Amazonia Regenerate Accelerator and Investment Fund. With the support of IDB Lab, IDB’s innovation and entrepreneurship branch, the fund was launched in June and will have USD 11 million to invest right away. The goal is to attract new international investors and reach USD 30 million (BRL 158 million) in the next 18 months.

“This entire history demonstrates how climate, sustainability and bioeconomy issues are relevant to KPTL and drive our strategies. We like these Brazilian verticals, and we know that they are competitive advantages for the country”, says Ramalho. This history is once again reflected in this news, since our first edition was about Henry Ford and sustainable projects.

The symbolism of Sumaúma

Just like Joelma’s dancing on stage and the leafy top of Sumaúma, the symbol tree of the Amazon region, innovation follows the frenetic beat of tecnobrega and biodiversity. Read umbrella.

So much so that of the more than 70 entrepreneurs present at the first edition of BAS, 39% are linked to the food and beverage sector, 13% to health and cosmetics, 10% to the climate sector, 9% to agribusiness, 6% to data and another 23% are divided into areas such as fashion, energy, finance, biotechnology and transport.

Regarding the degree of maturity, of a universe of 60 companies that responded to the organization’s form, 53% are in the traction phase, 25% in the operational stage, 11% seeking scale, 8% in the MVP testing stage, and 3% in the prototyping phase. As can be seen, this is a sample that indicates the diversity in the sector and allows us to glimpse the huge potential for generating innovation in the coming years.

Among this list of initiatives, Ages Bioactive is one of those under this gigantic “innovation top”.

Founded in 2020, Ages is the first company in Brazil focused on longevity and healthspan (“healthy lifespan”). With the purpose of helping people better deal with the passage of time, maintaining quality of life, Ages produces natural bioactive compounds, from the Amazon biome, which help prevent factors related to health decline.

“BAS was very important for this, because it brought investors into contact with Amazonian representatives. This is a very interesting aspect because what we need – I am from the Amazon, I live in the Amazon – it is for investments to come with sustainability in mind,” says the co-founder of Ages, which received around BRL 4 million in investments from the KPTL Forest and Climate Fund.

Another example is Augen. A startup that also participated in the BAS, the company operates in the area of ​​solutions for water treatment, production and distribution.

As explained by Felipe Tavares, Augen director and former superintendent of water and socioeconomic studies at the National Water and Basic Sanitation Agency (ANA), ensuring quality water for human consumption in remote areas, where traditional and indigenous communities live is one of the major challenges in the Amazon region.

Speaking of water, Fractal Engenharia de Sistemas’ focus is what founder Henrique Rocha calls “hydroclimatic intelligence”. One of the startups that pitched at the event, the company was founded in 2010, in the state of Santa Catarina. Its purpose is to use hydroclimatic data to understand the dynamics of water in a territory in order to support decision-making and mitigate the risks of projects, as well as help society, which suffers from floods and extreme weather events.

Another example, embraced once again by the leafy “innovation top”, is Agrotools. A digital solutions company with a strong presence in agribusiness, it also uses data intelligence to assist the Amazon business chain. Also present at BAS, the company – whose operations analyze more than 4.5 million territories and monitor BRL 15 billion in commodities – understands the bioeconomy from a broader concept, which refers to an economy based on the sustainable use of biological resources for the production of food, energy, materials, and chemical products.

We could bring here several other examples of innovative bioeconomy, climate, and sustainability startups. But, the “juice of the taperebá” is that the ecosystem is strengthening, fueled by the biodiversity of the Amazon and the need to value businesses that keep the forest standing.

Well, now we can relax a little, right?!? DJ, please, Gaby Amarantos on the playlist: “Cachaça de jambu.” Because after the success of BAS, we deserve to wet our words, right?

 “Bora tremer com cachaça de jambu / Bora curtir cachaça de jambu / Bora brindar com cachaça de jambu / Eita bebida gostosa essa cachaça de jambu” (“Let’s shake with jambu cachaça / Let’s enjoy jambu cachaça / Let’s toast with jambu cachaça / What a delicious drink this jambu cachaça is”) 

“Nature does not perform miracles; it makes revelations”

Carlos Drummond de Andrade

3 questions for…

Paulo Monteiro

Co-founder of Manioca and Amazonique, food and beverage companies specializing in Amazon biodiversity. He is co-founder and current president of the Amazon Bioeconomy Business Association (Assobio) and visiting professor of bioeconomy at the Pará University Center (CESUPA).

(Photo: Disclosure)

1) Assobio was created in 2023 with the goal of representing small and medium-sized companies that work with the socio-bioeconomy in the Amazon. How can the association contribute to this sector?

Assobio is the first Amazon bioeconomy business association operating in Brazil to the best of my knowledge. It is worth mentioning that most of the associated companies were created since 2019. In practice, we represent a new sector, although we constantly emphasize that bioeconomy is not new to the Amazon; it has been carried out for generations. But, this bioeconomy that is being seen by the world and perhaps generating more and more business opportunities that come from the standing forest and the biome, I think this is a bit new, considering businesses that export products outside the state, the region, or Brazil. Our goal as an association is, first, to identify our priority needs and fight for them. I can give you a few examples. We have just signed a contract with Azul Linhas Aéreas that gives us a significant credit to transport entrepreneurs from Assobio free of charge. This is a super key point both for an entrepreneur who does not live here, but works in the region, which is our minority, and for our vast majority, who live and work in the region, but need to travel to large consumer centers, such as São Paulo.

Another example is the dialogue with the public sector. We have just received an announcement from the Environment Secretariat that it will support a project of ours that brings visibility, prominence, and commercial opportunities to important events, such as COP.

Another is that the association defends the importance of small and medium-sized businesses, so that we can begin to be noticed by major decision-makers, public authorities, private institutions, and financiers, showing that it is not possible to think about the development of the Amazon without considering this segment.

2) What exactly is socio-bioeconomy and why is it important?

This is a master’s degree question that no one has answered conclusively. We call it social-bio-economics to highlight, first, that we have a very characteristic biome, which is the Amazon, and that this biome can produce an economy that is capable of bringing us development, that is, a better quality of life. But, this biome only exists, is rich and allows us to use the ingredients, plants, roots, medicines, in short, all these opportunities, because we have a society, a culture, an Amazonian population that has been used to working with this biome for millennia. And that has contributed to this biome becoming so rich. A population that knows very well which are the best plants, fruits, roots that can be used in the region and that have useful applications for human beings. Socioeconomics highlights that we are not just talking about raw materials or natural nutrients, but also about the use and interpretation that people who live in the Amazon give to these ingredients.

To give a very practical example, I usually say that cassava grows in the soil, but flour does not. Cassava can be turned into flour, which is part of our traditional culture. The processes for making this happen are also part of our traditional culture. Another example is copaiba, which is an important antifungal agent that we also use in the region. It is a use that was identified by the populations that live and have lived here for a long time. My house, for example, grew up with the smell of copaiba. Social bioeconomy highlights that it is not possible to think about a biome without thinking about people.

3) What are the biggest challenges for entrepreneurs in the region’s social bioeconomy?

Everything that is a regional challenge is also a huge challenge for business, that is, the logistical challenge, access to infrastructure. To give you an idea, electricity here is more than double the average price paid in São Paulo.

Because it is a greater distance and has a higher logistical cost to deliver to our customers, we also have less access to the consumer market. So, we often see – I have done this myself many times – entrepreneurs making mistakes, thinking that consumers from, for example, São Paulo or some other large center, will have the same habits or consumption as us.

Another crucial point is that, for the bioeconomy, the programs, infrastructures, initiatives, and financing are very recent.

Reinforcing what I already mentioned, of Assobio’s businesses, which currently number 74, 60% of them were created in 2019 or later. So, they are five years old or less. We have only recently been accessing this opportunity.

The novelty of this entire bioeconomy sector is also a challenge. Manioca will be ten years old in 2024. I remember that, in 2018, the term bioeconomy was not yet being used for business. Another thing worth mentioning is the difficulty in accessing more qualified labor.

Obviously, this is not a criticism of our region; on the contrary, it is a criticism of Brazil, which has paid very little attention to our region and left us with a tremendous inequality in relation to the rest of the country.

The other day I was at a conference at the Ethos Institute, and my fellow panelist, who is from Embrapa, said that 10% of Brazil’s science and technology budget goes to the Amazon. And we occupy 60% of the territory and have 20% of the planet’s biodiversity. So, this challenge of access to science and technology is something quite important that leaves us behind when it comes to making innovations that depend on science. This makes our businesses less competitive. We sometimes talk about Amazon 4.0, but Amazon 2.0 has not yet started to happen here. For example, we still have challenges in mastering extremely basic food engineering techniques that were discovered a century ago.