I first met Flavio in 2013, when he co-invested alongside 500 Global in Olist, one of Brazil’s largest online marketplaces–which recently raised a Series C round. Olist’s founder was in our San Francisco accelerator program, and turned to Flavio for funding. As then president of Walmart.com in Brazil, he became instrumental in building Olist’s name. 

Flavio already had a solid reputation as an e-commerce pioneer and operator in the country. For nearly two decades, he helped several companies, including multinationals, launch their online operations in Brazil.

After a successful stint at Philips, Magazine Luiza, one of Brazil’s biggest retailers, hired him to re-launch its website and improve the user experience as head of e-commerce. Those accomplishments caught the eye of Walmart, which invited him to build its website from scratch. After reaching $1 billion in online sales in just two years, management spun off Walmart.com into a separate entity with 1,500 employees and Flavio as president. 

He also tried his hand at something new: establishing the first digital bank in Brazil, Banco Original, but before long he was back to running digital and bricks-and-mortars operations at retail giant Via Varejo, a $7 billion (revenue) company with over 50,000 employees, where he was most recently CEO. 

Over the years, Flavio became familiar with Brazil’s entrepreneurial scene, both as a corporate executive in search of the latest technology and as an angel investor, with 12 retail and fintech investments in his portfolio. That’s how we reconnected again. Flavio decided to participate in our VC Unlocked program in August 2019 at Stanford. We found great alignment in the way we help companies grow. 

During the VC Unlocked program, Flavio invested in our Batch 25 company RestAR, which lets retail businesses convert product videos into 3D/AR visualization on mobile devices. He also introduced Israel-based RestAR to the CEO of Dafiti, one of the largest fashion e-commerce sites in Brazil, who also invested. The match aligned with our mission to help startups scale globally. 

From his base in São Paulo, Flavio is helping us increase our presence in Brazil, where we already have more than 40 investments, including Conta Azul, Descomplica and IdWall. He will also build a bridge between startups and corporations that want to be successful at digital transformation globally. 500 is a pioneer in corporate partnerships and private initiatives, which we plan to facilitate to foster a vibrant and diverse ecosystem in the country.

Flavio’s extensive experience will be invaluable in reinforcing 500 Global’s position as the most active early-stage venture capital firm in the world.

Bem Vindo, Flavio!

 

 

 

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