Ricardo Sangion, Former Director at Pinterest, Facebook, and Microsoft joins TheVentureCity as VP Growth Accelerator — Americas. TheVentureCity wants to broaden its company portfolio in Latin America and believes in Brazil’s entrepreneurial potential

At TheVentureCity, diversity is key to growth. For this reason, it has consolidated its expansion in Latin America to be closer to the companies that will boost change in the region — and in the rest of the world. In order to achieve this goal, Ricardo Sangion, orgininally from Brazil, has joined the accelerator program as Partner for Latin America.

Up until earlier this year, Ricardo Sangion (Campinas, Sao Paulo, 1976) was in charge of leading Pinterest in Latin America. He has also worked for top companies such as Facebook and Microsoft. In his own words, the region is “full of talent just like the United States, Europe, or East Asia, but the industry is not mature enough, yet. While it needs more money, the risk is also higher. TheVentureCity has a special acceleration model that helps startups grow with a balanced combination of funding and hands-on support.”

One of Ricardo’s missions at TheVentureCity will be to demonstrate the potential of Latin America and its Portuguese-speaking market as generators of business and high-impact companies. The region’s giant, Brazil, is full of entrepreneurship, but as Ricardo points out, “it is so big that many do not think of leaving that market. However, the borders are open, so innovation and social impact startups can circulate throughout the entire region.”

With this new team member onboard, TheVentureCity continues to expand on its global experience for its 70+ partners and focuses its efforts more keenly on the Portuguese-speaking market, in which it already works with three companies:

• Levee: The largest ‘blue-collar’ job-seeking platform in the country, which uses AI as part of its job search feature.
• Stayfilm: video app that is part of the accelerator.
• RecargaPay: largest Mobile Wallet in Brazil, created by Ricardo Teijeiro.

In regard to this recent, Brazilian arrival to the company, TheVentureCity Founder and CEO, Laura González-Estéfani, said that Ricardo “has grown spectacular companies in the region. Ricardo is an entrepreneur and investor who has TheVentureCity DNA. We always look for profiles like his on an international level. Brazil is one of our big objectives; we love the enthusiasm of its entrepreneurs and we know the talent that is there. We want to do more in Brazil.”

At TheVentureCity, we build solutions.Our model is different: $100K for six months of acceleration in exchange for 6% of the company. We accelerate only up to 25 companies per year. We look for companies with powerful data that is supported by inspiring founders, solid engineering, a strong product foundation, and lots of scalability.

“I like to work in cycles; I feel entrepreneurial. I’m moved by curiosity. This position allows me to keep learning every day. What I love about TheVentureCity is that it is neither solely a Venture Capital firm nor a ‘business angel’; it is a balance between experience, innovation and financial capability. It is exactly what we need.”

- Ricardo Sangion