ACE, an investment company in startups and corporate innovation, starts 2018 with the arrival of four new partners. Felipe Collins, José Gutierrez, Luís Gustavo Lima and Sulivan Santiago join Arthur Garutti, partner of the company since 2017, and founders Pedro Waengertner and Mike Ajnsztajn.

The four had previously worked for the company and were promoted to membership after ACE achieved record results throughout 2017.

Pedro Waengertner, CEO of ACE - "It is very good to see the company grow and increasingly influence the innovation environment in Brazil. The inclusion of more people in the corporate structure reinforces the expectation that our pace of growth will be even stronger this year . "

In the area of investment in startups, the biggest highlight was the fact that all companies that completed the acceleration program throughout 2017 have received new follow-on contributions. In total, ACE startups raised 27 rounds, 5 of them in Series A, with a cumulative total of R$ 18 million.

The company also broke a record for startups that went through the program over the course of a year. Were 62 startups in all, 20 of which received investment from the growth program, which has reached the milestone of 170 accelerated startups since 2012

In 2018, results will be driven by the agreement closed with Bossa Nova Investimentos, the largest micro-VC fund in Latin America. In addition to leading an investment round at ACE, the fund reached an agreement to offer a term sheet of up to R$ 500 thousand to companies that meet all criteria at the end of the acceleration program.

In the corporate innovation arm, the company expanded its group of partners and started to serve big names like BASF, Braskem and BMG Group. Together, ACE and these corporations develop innovation projects with startups and as startups - such as mentoring programs, team training and internal project creation.

For 2018, the two aspects of the business should be strengthened, with an even more active process of seeking new investments in startups that are already part of the portfolio and the arrival of new customers.

The new members

The four professionals who were promoted to partners of ACE accumulate extensive experience as entrepreneurs both in startups and in companies of the most diverse sizes.

Felipe Collins

Formerly head of marketing, Felipe Collins Figueiredo now responds as CMO (Chief Marketing Officer). Graduated in Journalism from Faculdade Cásper Líbero and post-graduated in Marketing from ESPM with an extension at FIU (Florida International University), he taught at ESPM, at Escola de Design Thinking and MeuSucesso.Com, and is an expert in Agile Marketing and author of " The Growth Hacking Guide ". He has 10 years of experience with digital marketing, planning, content, multimedia, inbound marketing and communication through COIN (Colorado Innovation Network), Terra, UOL, Propmark, Bradesco Esportes FM, Hook Digital, Getty Images and DPZ.

Luís Gustavo Lima

Luís Gustavo Lima (LG) is the new CSO (Chief Startup Officer), responsible for commanding all actions involving startups, from acceleration to portfolio management. Graduated in Electrical Engineering with a postgraduate degree in Marketing and Commercial Management from BSP - Business School São Paulo. He began to undertake at the age of 14 as a street vendor, he was elected as the outstanding entrepreneur of the year 2008 by APRH Sorocaba. He has over 12 years of experience in the corporate world, including 7 years at Natura where he joined as a trainee and worked in the areas of Operations and Logistics, Marketing Planning and Product and Activation Marketing, where he served as Marketing and Innovation Projects Manager . He is a professor of Startup Management at ESPM, has taught at FGV and MeuSucesso.com, as well as being the author of the book "Lean Startup: how to apply in your business".

José Gutierrez

José Gutierrez starts to accumulate the role of Head of the ACE Sul Hub with the position of CRO (Chief Recruiting Officer), as well as the responsibility to lead the expansion in Latin America. PhD in Physical Education, Master in Marketing from the University of Granada (Spain) and an MBA from the ESIC Business School. He has been working with Startups since 2007. He was co-founder of the patented Haefni Health system for the prevention of musculoskeletal injuries, the world's first pleokinetic system (natural motion simulation by software), marketed in 6 countries and used by Real Madrid FC (Spain), Centro FIFA Excellence Award Alfredo Rienzi (Uruguay) and Catholic University of Chile, among others. In addition, he was a professional wrestling athlete (Olympic fight), counting 9 Spanish titles and fights in more than 20 different countries.

Sulivan Santiago

Sulivan Santiago is ACE's new CTO (Chief Technology Officer). Computer scientist with a postgraduate degree in Software Project Management and Finance from IBMEC. Serial entrepreneur, he founded Black & Scholes (the first options calculator in the Brazilian market), Zupot (the first mobile chat in Brazil and #3 in the world) and PokerMetrics (worldwide startup focused on earnings management for poker players incorporated in Delaware in the USA). He has solid experience in B2B sales, acquired in 7 years working at IBM as Sales Manager for mid-market and enterprise companies in Brazil and Latin America. He is certified in sales by IBM Global Sales School and a specialist in SaaS.