The five businesses that make up Fundo Vale’s portfolio to contribute to Vale’s 2030 Voluntary Forest Commitment and help reach its goal of restoring 100,000 hectares of degraded areas by 2030 entered the structuring phase on February 25. By the end of 2021, these businesses had passed the proof-of-concept stage and the area covered by them had been scaled up from 1,000 to 6,000 hectares. Now, through the Acceleration Program for the 2030 Voluntary Forest Commitment, the idea is for these enterprises to reassess their strategies and bottlenecks, and then leverage their business models to ensure they are sustainable and financially scalable.
Inocas, Belterra, Regenera, Caaporã and Bioenergia are now in the interview and business maturity identification phase. They will be assisted by this program, which was specially structured for Fundo Vale by the CERTI Foundation and Darwin Startups, an accelerator. The SBN Challenge aims to catalyze the development and growth of businesses that operate in sustainable value chains linked to the Voluntary Forest Commitment.
“Our role is to provide a strategic business vision, through innovation, that helps make these companies more sustainable. This program is a new challenge for Darwin, but at the same time it is within our area of expertise, which involves supporting, guiding and encouraging entrepreneurs on their journeys,” says Marcos Mueller, the CEO of Darwin Startups.
Each company’s innovations (a competitive advantage), specific characteristics and degree of maturity were taken into account, as well as their teams and areas of activity. The acceleration trajectory will be developed through individual and exclusive plans.
In 2022, the entrepreneurs in question will benefit from support strategies, including mentoring, connections with partners and advice from experts in business and their technical areas of expertise. The program is being implemented in hybrid format, with both remote and in-person meetings. Partner institutions Move Social, Palladium, Imaflora, Sitawi and Ecosecuritie will support the journey by evaluating each business’ financial, impact, carbon, market connection, social and environmental indicators.
By the end of this program, it is expected that the businesses will be ready to scale up their models and offer their solutions to producers with the goal of recovering degraded areas in Brazil while generating social impacts.
Fundo Vale