Historical series Itaú Unibanco and Cubo announce the creation of the ESG hub
With an initial focus on the Net Zero commitment, the Hub will work on connections for the development of market-integrated solutions that foster the best ESG startups and help companies reduce their carbon footprint.
June 2022 – Cubo Itaú, the most important initiative to foster technological entrepreneurship in Latin America, now has a hub especially focused on ESG solutions, an acronym referring to environmental, social and corporate governance issues. The main objective of the ESG Cubo is to be a platform for technological entrepreneurs who want to transform the social and environmental reality in Brazil and Latin America and will focus on innovation and technological development for carbon reduction and removal.
Currently, the Brazilian ecosystem has 1,270 ESG startups, according to the Pipe.Labo survey. In addition to leveraging existing companies, Cubo’s latest hub wants to foster new generations of entrepreneurs in this sector to create disruptive and scalable solutions. “Structural inefficiencies are evidence of the enormous potential that technological innovation has in the long term in the segment,” comments Pedro Prates, Cubo Itaú executive. By the end of 2022, the hub intends to triple the number of startups in the community sector.
The initiative will be organized through hubs, and the first of them is Net Zero, which was born with the mission of solving the decarbonization challenges in priority sectors, such as Agriculture, Civil Construction, Oil & Gas, and Steel. “The Hub wants to bring together companies, individuals, startups, tech companies, and other agents to transform the region through technological entrepreneurship,” adds Prates.
The hub aims to bring these entrepreneurs closer to large corporations that have made commitments to reduce emissions, especially Itaú’s clients. “We want to be the bank that will stand by our clients in this transition process, and the ESG Hub will be one more way to support our clients on this journey. The solutions for organizations to reach their zero emissions targets are based on technology, innovation and fostering entrepreneurship, which is why we see this partnership with Cubo as fundamental in our own Net Zero strategy, since today it depends essentially on the decarbonization of our client portfolio”, explains Luciana Nicola, Director of Institutional Relations and Sustainability at Itaú Unibanco.
In Itaú Unibanco’s ESG strategy, sustainability and business go hand in hand. The bank works to leverage ESG business and help clients to do sustainable business. On the climate change front, the organization has worked intensively to reduce its carbon footprint and offset what it cannot reduce.
In this sense, we seek to work together with customers to promote a behavior based on the reduction and removal of the carbon footprint. It also works for compensation, with initiatives such as the “Compromisso com o Clima” (Climate Commitment) Platform, which connects companies and socio-environmental projects for emissions compensation. The bank is also working on alternatives to foster the voluntary carbon credit market.
The ESG Cube, and specifically the Net Zero hub, will be crucial to Itaú’s challenge of assisting clients in the transition, as knowledge about how to change production processes, alter raw materials, or implement the best recipe to stop emitting carbon is being developed now. For this to materialize into practical actions, collaboration is needed. “From the challenges of different sectors, startups can bring solutions and help our customers in this transition. This should naturally generate more business and make them more sustainable and adapted to the new market reality,” adds Luciana.
About Cubo Itaú
Inaugurated in September 2015 by Itaú Unibanco in partnership with Redpoint eventures, Cubo Itaú is the most relevant hub for fostering technological entrepreneurship in Latin America, a non-profit organization that enhances the connection and business creation between large companies and startups.
Cubo Itaú is located in the Vila Olímpia region of São Paulo and, through its physical and digital platforms, has contributed to the growth of more than three hundred curated startups that are part of its portfolio and reflect more than twenty market segments, thus contemplating entrepreneurs from all over Brazil and several regions of the world. The Cubo also supports the digital and cultural transformations of corporations and has supporters that represent the largest industries in the economy, such as Itaú Unibanco, Dasa, VLI, Corteva, São Martinho, Itaú BBA, CNH Industrial, Suzano, ConectCar, iCarros, Bike Itaú, Vec Itaú, Wilson Sons, Porto do Açu, SaintGobain, TIM, Stellantis, Jaguar Land Rover, Vivest, NTT Data Brasil, Wayra Brasil and BID Lab. In addition, there are strategic partners such as Accenture Digital, Liga Ventures, Anjos do Brasil, Abstartups, BR Angels, Darwin, Numerik, Forge 3D, CI&T, The Venture City, Albrecht & Prado Advogados. More information can be found at: https://cubo.network/.