Digital Platforms and Startups as Financial Assets: The Temporal Dynamics of New Businesses (Revista TOMO)

Summary

• The research is grounded in 37 qualitative interviews with founders of early-stage tech startups supported by accelerators, collected across two waves between May 2021 and August 2022, and during 2025.p.2
• Venture capital funding in Brazil reached $16,9 billion in 2021, up significantly from $5,6 billion recorded in 2020.p.6
• Nu Pagamentos S.A. led startup investment rounds in Brazil in 2021 by securing $1.150 million in venture funding.p.6
• Fapesp allocated R$ 105 million to corporate partnership research in 2020, while VC firms invested an average of R$ 73 million per startup that same year.p.6
• A study by Sling Hub revealed that 57% of startups that raised initial capital between 2018 and 2020 failed to secure a second round of investment.p.10
• Brazil counted over 13.000 startup founders in 2022, while angel network Anjos do Brasil estimated over 7.000 angel investors in 2019.p.9

Key insights

1. Business accelerators operate as social intermediaries that qualify early-stage startup projects into financial assets capable of accumulating future value.p.1
2. Early-stage founders rely on informal angel investors because commercial banks demand credit guarantees that nascent businesses cannot satisfy.p.3
3. Venture capital funding in Brazil expanded rapidly after 2017 due to international investors drawn by high-profile scale-ups such as Nu Pagamentos S.A.p.5
4. Accelerated digitalization during the COVID-19 pandemic boosted VC capital allocation toward tech startups operating in traditional corporate sectors.p.6
5. Venture capital investment heavily prioritizes digitalizing standard consumer services like real estate and food delivery rather than deep tech innovations.p.7
6. Founders strategically delay accepting investment proposals to build visible queues of prospective investors and artificially signal high demand.p.11
7. Demodays serve as temporal coordination mechanisms that set synchronized opening dates for funding negotiations between accelerators and investors.p.12