The second edition of Minera Startup, Hydro's relationship program with startups in Pará , has reached a new phase. After the entire initial process of presentation and pitches, three startups from Pará were selected by Hydro. They were EasyGestor, which operates in the management area, Ludus Studio, an Interactive Technology company and VIGHA, which operates in civil construction. The three startups are now in a more advanced step of the program. They are in contact with sectors of the company to define projects and scopes of work. In this phase, startups verify the specific needs of the sectors to plan and present solutions in alignment with Hydro's team of experts. If all goes well, the next steps will be to make technical and commercial proposals, culminating in the last phase of the program: the contract with a multinational the size of Hydro, scheduled to take place in the coming months.

“The success and growth of Minera Startup in its second year are reasons of great satisfaction for us at Hydro. At this stage, we have three 100% Pará startups from completely different sectors with the potential to offer disruptive solutions for Hydro and the market as a whole. Entrepreneurs are having constant meetings and alignments with the sectors to define the scope of work. Now, we can only wait for the solutions that will still be presented after this stage”, says Leoncio Rodrigues Bitar Neto, Digital Transformation manager at Hydro.

EasyGestor is a startup that combines a low-cost management system and entrepreneurial education. The idea was born in 2013 by businessman Vitor Alves to initially serve the Belém market. However, only in mid-2017, the startup began to take its first steps in the national market, with its free version, aimed at helping these companies even more, which from then on could manage in an easy, simple and safe way, even for the most technology-averse entrepreneurs.

“We are working on a project for Hydro Paragominas, looking for a process automation solution for the warehouse, reducing human time and effort, increasing productivity and generating more accurate data”, says Vitor Alves, founder of EasyGestor.

Ludus is working on virtual reality projects for the Hydro Paragominas and Hydro Alunorte plants. The projects involve models for the two units. Ludus Studio is an Interactive Technology company, located in Belém do Pará, which works in Digital Transformation. Its focus is to expand the potential of products and services in companies from different market segments through the virtual world. The startup works with Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, interactive simulations, 3D and virtual models, taking advantage of the creative potential of products and services to solve problems, validate projects and boost sales.

“Minera Startup is a great motivator. Before I started a company, I didn't see such incentives for startups like Açaí Valley and Hydro are doing. I was lucky to open the company and see these programs happening, because they help us to offer our service”, says Ítalo Freitas, founder of Ludus.

VIGHA is already working on a computational solution to reduce manual work, corrective maintenance in reports, monitoring and data sharing in real time, executing the management of Hydro's works. VIGHA was born in 2015 and is a family startup, created by two brothers, who worked in civil construction. This experience showed them both the operational difficulties they faced. There were spreadsheets and papers that were lost, which greatly increased the work. Then came the idea of simplifying the management of works, eliminating the complexities of software, and VIGHA was born.

“We did things for others and they didn't turn out the way we wanted. We tested a few things, made a background to prepare for this adventure. We had conditions for that. Today we serve clients all over Brazil and two clients in Angola”, says Fabio Chaar, one of the creators of VIGHA.

About Minera Startup

Minera Startup is a collaboration between Hydro, Açaí Valley and startups, focused on solutions for the company's business and with the purpose of stimulating entrepreneurs in the State of Pará who focus on innovation, contributing to local development. In its selection process, a series of requirements are evaluated, such as having a team formed by at least two members aged 18 or over and having solutions preferably focused on Augmented Reality, Digital Office, Internet of Things (IoT) applied in the environment industrial, among others.

The program has seven integration stages, and at the end, startups that present solutions that meet the defined scope can sign a contract with Hydro. The steps are:

Realization of the “pitch”, where startups present their proposals for solutions and business models for various areas and professionals of Hydro;

Disclosure of selected startups to advance the discussion of possible proofs of concepts with the areas of Hydro that showed interest;

Presentation, to the selected startups, of the existing challenges in each interested area, and discussion of a possible scope for carrying out the proof of concept;

Defining the scope of the proof of concept between startup and Hydro's internal area;

Delivery of the technical and commercial proposal for the proof of concept;

Assessment of Hydro's supplier prerequisites and contracting process for the startup to execute the proof of concept;

Execution of the proof of concept at Hydro according to the defined scope.

About Hydro – The energy and aluminum company

Hydro is an industrial leader creating businesses and partnerships for a more sustainable future. We develop important industries for people and society.

Since 1905, Hydro has turned natural resources into valuable products for people and businesses, creating a safe and secure workplace for our 34,000 employees at more than 140 locations in 40 countries.

Today, we own and operate several businesses, in addition to investing in sustainable industries. Hydro, through its businesses, is present in a wide range of market segments in aluminum, energy, metal recycling, renewable energies and batteries, offering unique knowledge and skills.

Hydro is committed to leading the industry towards a more sustainable future, creating more viable societies by developing natural resources into products and solutions in innovative and efficient ways.

About Acai Valley

Açaí Valley is the Pará Association of Technology and Innovation of Pará, active since 2019. The association seeks to foster entrepreneurship, technology and innovation in the State, with the aim of strengthening and developing the ecosystem and all stakeholders that are part of it, as well as startups , investors, accelerators, incubators, researchers, educational institutions, government and so on. Among the actions of Açaí Valley, there are monthly events, lives, meetups, happy hours, pitch days and hackathons and the Startup Weekend event in Belém, which gave rise to the community. Pará is responsible for 24% of startups in the North region of Brazil, behind only the State of Amazonas (29%), according to the Brazilian Association of Startups (Abstartups). The capital, Belém, has more than 40 mapped startups, in addition to two incubators and three accelerators. The most common segments of startups in the region are communication and media (8.3%), health and wellness (6.2%) and internet (6.2%). Most of the businesses are in the operational phase.