Volpe Capital partners with Inteli and will invest in startups created by students. The partnership between Milena Olivera and André Maciel's venture capital firm and Inteli includes the creation of a physical hub, mentoring, and even seed capital so that students can get their idea off the ground Chat with Read the summary of the article Since it was created, Inteli - Institute of Technology and Leadership - has become known as the "Brazilian MIT", in a reference to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recognized for training entrepreneurs who create billion-dollar startups - the estimate is that its students have founded more than 30,000 startups that together generate more than US$ 2 trillion per year. Now, Inteli is taking another step to become even more like MIT, even though its CEO, Maira Habimorad, does not like that comparison. The institute created by André Esteves and Roberto Sallouti, of BTG Pactual, is announcing a partnership with Volpe Capital, the firm founded by Milena Oliveira and André Maciel. The partnership includes everything from the creation of a physical hub so that students who intend to become entrepreneurs can work, to mentoring and closer ties with the Brazilian venture capital ecosystem, and may include the contribution of seed capital so that the idea can get off the ground. "It is a very early check so they can structure the project. It is like capital before the angel round," Milena tells NeoFeed. "We want to be close to exceptional professionals who are being prepared in different skills." The entrepreneurship track arose from Inteli's need to give options to students who did not want to do final course projects that followed only an academic line. "We then developed three tracks: one academic, one corporate, and one entrepreneurial," says Maira. Follow Neofeed on social media and get more information. Last year, when Inteli's first class of students graduated, the entrepreneurship track helped create six startups. Among them are Hakutaku, an AI that records, organizes, and improves every decision, idea, and learning of companies; IKKB, a fintech that combines accounts, cards, foreign exchange, payments, and treasury; and Cloak, which develops private execution infrastructure for the Solana blockchain. The entrepreneurship center, which was named Founders Club, now has 10 startups from students and alumni. "It will be improved with Volpe Capital's support. Little by little, it is becoming more ambitious," says Maira. Volpe Capital, whose two funds were anchored by BTG Pactual, has already invested in companies such as Caju, UOL Tech, Zippi, and VTEX in Brazil, as well as in the fintech Aplazo and the healthtech Welbe in Mexico. In its second fund, whose goal is to reach US$ 100 million, Volpe's thesis is to reinforce investments in artificial intelligence companies. To that end, it created a committee to help it in this mission. The committee is made up of Grigori Somin, CTO of Connectly, who led the development of the Gemini platform at Google, in partnership with DeepMind, managing a team of more than 100 engineers; Jonatas Grosman, an AI researcher at PUC-Rio; Felippe Piazza, founder of Leap AI; and Igor Braga, founder of modell.ai. Chat with

APLAZO, a leading Mexican buy now, pay later platform, has expanded its credit line with BBVA Spark by 40% to $50 million. The financing will support the company's growth and expand access to credit solutions in Mexico, where over 60 million adults need credit options. Founded in 2020, APLAZO allows users to make purchases and pay in instalments without credit cards. The platform has over 300,000 monthly downloads and partnerships with more than 15,000 merchants across retail, travel, healthcare and entertainment sectors. Mexico's BNPL market is projected to grow from $3.98 billion in 2025 to $13.85 billion by 2031. During Buen Fin 2025, BNPL accounted for 12% of payment preferences, becoming one of the five most popular payment methods.