Estudo de caso do programa FIEMG Lab 4.0 e sua comparação com outros programas de aceleração corporativa no Brasil

Abstract

This article has mapped 27 Brazilian corporate acceleration programs. Such programs have been analyzed in what concerns their architecture. The following aspects have also been considered: execution by an external partner from the organization; acceleration duration; amount of startups accelerated; existence or absence of investment in exchange for equity; selection process format; criteria evaluated on startups; benefits offered to participant startups; and benefits for enterprises to carry out an acceleration program, supported by an external partner. As it has been observed, most corporate acceleration programs in execution in Brazil do not invest in startups, their acceleration process lasts for approximately 5 months and is employed in about 8 startups per cycle. Their main goal is to establish connections between startups and business areas/units from anchor companies and to explore business opportunities and solutions, conjointly. Besides, the programs offer access to companies’ executives, mentorships alongside employees and, in some cases, co-working space and international travel opportunities. As performance indicators, programs employ the amount of established partnerships, hours/sessions of mentorship, established connections, etc. In sequence, a case study has been performed, regarding the Program FIEMG Lab 4.0, carried out by the Industries Federation of the State of Minas Gerais, partnered with four large enterprises, to accelerate 50 startups with focus on solutions for the industry. The study has been conducted by the analysis of documents and semi-structured interview sessions with the program’s managers. From data collected, the Program FIEMG Lab 4.0 has been compared to its previous edition, the FIEMG Lab New Businesses, and to other 27 mapped corporate acceleration programs. This work has allowed the identification of multiple differentials of the Program FIEMG Lab 4.0, as compared to the other corporate acceleration programs in Brazil. Such differentials are: the possibility to connect startups to more than 15 thousand selected industries (from 60 thousand) in the State of Minas Gerais, apt to validate and to interact with startups; at least 7 times more accelerated startups per cycle than the average, in a 2.5 times longer acceleration period. Another relevant aspect of the program architecture has been the focus on technology development and enhancement.