BRB and Plug and Play Brazil Announce Strategic Partnership

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL September 15, 2020 - Plug and Play, the global innovation platform and accelerator, today announced that Banco de Brasilia (BRB) will serve as an ecosystem partner for its location in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Focused on financial services technology, this partnership will allow the public entity to get involved in the innovation ecosystem and interact with it to boost their internal digital transformation. Through this partnership, Plug and Play and BRB will work with startups that are creating new technologies and products to build successful experiences within the Brazilian community. 

The partnership will allow BRB to advance in the area of ​​innovation, considered strategic for the Bank's modernity, growth, and perpetuity in an increasingly competitive market.

In this sense, Plug and Play will actively participate in the structuring of the BRB Innovation Center - BRB LAB WOW, at Biotic, and in the setting up of the Bank's office in Silicon Valley, the largest innovation hub in the world, located in California (USA). There, the largest startups and global technology companies, such as Apple, Facebook, and Google, are concentrated.

“This is another important step that BRB takes in the creation of a culture of innovation and will allow us to have access to an important HUB”, says the president of BRB, Paulo Henrique Costa. “BRB has sought to be a benchmark in terms of service quality and experience for customers in the digital world. The partnership will allow the Bank to get closer to the innovation ecosystem, thus enabling the achievement of a new level on this front too,” he added.

Plug and Play launched its first location in South America last September 2019. Looking to grow the ecosystem, Plug and Play is about to launch its second batch of startups in the Fintech, Food, and Agtech spaces as well as its first collaborative projects in the Commerce sector.

Partnering with Plug and Play is an opportunity for companies like BRB to position themselves as innovation leaders in their markets. Banco de Brasilia will leverage the Plug and Play ecosystem to launch its 6-month Open Innovation program with the objective of finding 10 national and international solutions in the Operational Efficiency, Customer Experience, Solutions for the Government, Cybersecurity, and Payments.

“We are delighted to onboard BRB as our newest partner in Brazil. It is a reality that digital transformation is changing the current status quo of the financial services sector. Partnering with the public sector is challenging but at the same time motivating as we’ll be able to contribute to the community and make an impact in Brazil. BRB is ready to transform and we are ready to join this adventure with them,” said Saeed Amidi, Founder and CEO of Plug and Play. 

For more information about the partnership, participate in our partnership signing and officialization event, which will be broadcast on Zoom platform. In this occasion, Saeed Amidi, CEO and Founder of Plug and Play and Paulo Henrique Costa, President of BRB, will speak about the expectations and the next steps of the Program. The event will take place on Thursday, September 17, at 2 pm (Brasília time) and at 10 am, PST time. For more information visit: http://bit.ly/BRBPlugandPlay

About BRB 
With 54 years of experience in the financial market, Banco de Brasília or even BRB, is a public bank, one of the last in the country, which, in addition to being a financial agent for the Federal District government, is a social agent with the population. Listed on the stock exchange and with an estimated capital of more than R $ 7 billion, BRB has been growing exponentially, which makes it possible to establish new partnerships and explore new markets. BRB's mission is to act as a solid, agile, modern, efficient and profitable public bank, the protagonist of economic, social and human development, the generation of employment and income and the improvement of the regional quality of life, in line with the best governance practices and management, and ethical principles and values. With national operations and presence in the States of Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Piauí and the Federal District, BRB has also been expanding in the digital universe, with the launch of its Digital Bank , NAÇÃO BRB FLA, the result of a partnership with Flamengo, a Brazilian football club that, according to FIFA ranking, has the biggest fans in the world. In the last two months alone, more than 42 thousand digital accounts were opened. In this sense, in line with market trends and with a focus on innovation, BRB seeks to transform people's lives and promote economic, social and human development through financial, innovative and digital solutions, with a unique and complete experience.

About Plug and Play
Plug and Play is a global innovation platform. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we have built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services and an in-house VC to make technological advancement progress faster than ever before. Since inception in 2006, our programs have expanded worldwide to include a presence in over 30 locations globally giving startups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond. With over 30,000 startups and 400 official corporate partners, we have created the ultimate startup ecosystem in many industries. We provide active investments with 200 leading Silicon Valley VCs, and host more than 700 networking events per year. Companies in our community have raised over $9 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Dropbox, Lending Club and PayPal. For more information, visit www.plugandplaytechcenter.com.