My top 03 foreign investments & internationalization outcomes of 2019

Wow! We made it through 2019. What a perfect challenging year it was (technically, still is)!

As I am preparing myself for the year ahead, I can't stop thinking of how BIG 2019 was for me, personally. It was definitely very intense, and it was so worth it.

To wrap up the last 365 days, I made a #top3 outcomes that should not be missed:

#01 - USD 10 billion in announced FDI attraction from GCC to Brazil. 

Since 2018, we've been engaging with investors in the GCC region to promote Brazil as an investment destination, its thriving sectors and the growth companies and funds managers that are "rocking" the ecosystem. Three years ago, I remember bringing one entrepreneur and investor at a time, while running Rule Number One, thinking: "this is going to pick up very soon...". Not only topics I was promoting from LATAM and Brazil, such as food security, AgTech, PE & VC, Fintech picked up, it literally is everywhere in the MENA region now.

There were countless amazing trips to Saudi Arabia (alone as a woman) that were key to show consistency and credibility to investors. 

Successfully conceptualized and executed the first Road Show in GCC and Turkey, that I so much believed in, which required a lot of preparation to engage with SWF, Private Equity and Venture Capital firms. All these efforts, aligned with the relevance of the MENA region to Brazil, culminated in our involvement to co-organize the official business seminars for a presidential and ministerial visit in 3 different countries of the GCC.

The right people, at the right time, doing the right thing could only encourage facilitation and cooperation in different capacities and also the announcement of USD 10 billion of foreign direct investments, by Public Investment Fund to Brazil. I'm glad I was crazy enough to go for it and I'm glad that I am part of it.

(I thank Linda Rottenberg (Endeavor Global) for ingrained in my mind that crazy is a compliment and that if you are not being called crazy, you are not thinking big enough).

It hasn't just started, though. By mapping the investment inflows from GCC to Brazil in the past 15 years, this is the first intelligence base created at ApexBrasil for the MENA region. And, I can tell you such enriched information one can find nowhere. This confidence comes from countless weekends, stuck on my chair, fine-tuning the data, stalking companies, matching multiple sources, verifying and running an in-house due diligence, and being extremely connected the latest updates. It was hard work but it paid off. Although its confidential, it is pretty obvious the impact of Softbank Vision Fund in the latest rounds in technology applied to logistics and financial services in Brazil, and also the U$ 1 billion Tezos tokens between Dalma Capital and BTG Pactual. 

#02 - Brazilian Technology brought to the GCC

It is no news that I have been advocating tech opportunities for investments and internationalization for practically 13 years in different markets, though for the past 3 years between Brazil and MENA. So, when it happens, we got to shout loud about it.

An extremely innovative startup in O&G to identify leakage in pipelines through technology and automation to AgTech growth startups to fund managers. What they all have in common is being the first Brazilian companies to attend programs in the GCC and having the opportunity to showcase their innovative ideas for the first time, thanks to all the efforts we have been putting in mapping they key players, bringing partnerships of perceived value for both sides and sustaining our interactions with data, consistency and high standard execution. Institutions in the likes of KAUST, Saudi Aramco, SAGIA, Abu Dhabi Investment Office, Abu Dhabi Global Markets, Dubai FDI and Gitex, to name a few, are the ones making it happen along with us.

This wouldn't be possible without the support received throughout this process of the Brazilian Embassies, which, by interacting with the team and Ambassadors themselves, for the first time in my career, I can't thank them enough for the trust, support and exposure given to me, each step of the way. Special shout out to HE Marcelo Della Nina, HE Eduardo Gradilone, HE Norton Rapesta!

#03 - Climbing the ranking and raising the bar

As part of our investment attraction activities, we are fortunate to have MENA as a relevant destination for mutual collaboration, in fact, I was thrilled to put together DP World, one of the main GCC investors in Brazil, with our Ministry of Science, technology, Innovation and Communication, in the presence of our Minister, HE Astronaut Marcos Pontes. The meeting went so well that six months later, Minister Pontes updated me that things are progressing since then! =)

As our investors relations get stronger, we see their mutual partnership taking place. Although the third edition of Brasil Investment Forum took place this year, it is the first time we bring Arab investors to the event. More importantly, is that the UAE ranked 6th in the list of most representative countries at the event, just behind giants such as China, USA, Italy, Japan and Spain, respectively. Yes, the impact was great for our debut representing the Middle East, now the bar is higher.