Infrastructure draws entrepreneurs
O Estado de S. Paulo - 05/19/2009
The investments in infrastructure in the Country in recent years are opening new business fields for entrepreneurs. While developing services and products to cater to sectors such as energy, railroads and ports, small companies have prospered in an industry dominated by great corporations.
CFlex, from Campinas (SP), bet in a program to cater to railroad transportation companies. The business - a computer program that uses artificial intelligence to plan the circulation of the trains - arouse from a Ph.D. dissertation in the university, nearly ten years ago. In 2005, with the product developed and the participation in fairs of the sector, the company gained clients like ALL and Vale. Today, its revenues reach R$ 5million (US$ 2.4 million). The company is currently the supplier of the Australian mining company Rio Tinto and it participates in public bids in Mexico and Chile. Another front is the North American market. After three years of negotiation, the entrepreneurs entered into an agreement with French multinational Alstom to use the product in the railroads of the United States. For entrepreneur Caio Fiúza, one of the founders of Visagio, the beginning is always more difficult. Visagio elaborates "management engineering" projects in the companies, a sort of consulting that uses mathematical models to obtain profit in processes. Nowadays, Visagio, which has already been incubated in Coppe/UFRJ, renders services to Petrobras, Vale and CSN and it has over 100 employees. Another company that grows with the expansion of the infrastructure sector is the Planta Engenharia, from São Paulo. Since 2002 rendering research services for companies that operate offshore rigs, among which Petrobras, it now invests in a new niche. The company is developing a project of a tower for the generation of Aeolian energy in the sea. In order to conclude the project, the company is waiting for a financing of R$ 1.6 million (US$ 761.9 thousand) from the Finep (Studies and Projects Financing Agency), of the federal government.