PORTAL DE COMPRAS PÚBLICAS

Public Procurement

40% of Brazilian municipalities reportedly use this digital marketplace to run more efficient procurement processes

ABOUT PORTAL DE COMPRAS PÚBLICAS

Latin America and the Caribbean

Public Procurement

  • Founded in 2016
  • Funding: £340,000 (seed)
  • Revenue growth from 2020 to 2021: 76%
  • Investors include Cedro Capital
  • HQ in Brasilia
  • Approx. 100 FTEs
  • Key clients/partners: 2,200 municipalities in Brazil, five of which are state capitals

OECD countries spend 12% of their GDP on public procurement. In Latin America and the Caribbean, that figure rises to 20%. However, as BCG notes, public procurement processes often stretch over months and years. Delays and heightened compliance requirements add uncertainty and drive up costs. 

 

Portal de Compras Públicas, a public procurement marketplace, helps make procurement more efficient through its digital platform that streamlines the way government organisations purchase from suppliers. The Brasilia-based startup reports that it speeds up procurement processes by 76% through connecting buyers and suppliers, and reduces public sector organisations’ costs by about 28%. 

 

Portal de Compras Públicas is far from the only public procurement platform on the market. What is remarkable about the company is its recent growth. The company had approximately 100 municipalities as customers in early 2020 and now reportedly serves 2,200 of Brazil’s 5,500 municipalities, including some of the country’s largest like the City of São Paulo. Collectively, the company reports that these organisations transact approximately USD$50 million every day on the platform. 




In April 2021, the Brazilian government enacted a new public procurement law that affects public entities at the federal, state and municipal level. This new legislation follows OECD guidelines on public procurement, such as promoting wider participation for RFPs and reducing corruption. Digital tools like Portal de Compras Públicas are integral to these initiatives, enabling transparency in public procurement and spreading the word about RFPs. Furthermore, this growth tracks with Brazil’s public sector digitalisation efforts, catalysed in part by a $1B credit line from the Inter-American Development Bank. 

 

As Leonardo Ladeira, Portal de Compras Públicas’ co-founder and CEO, describes, their rapid growth comes down to being at the right place at the right time: “We, as entrepreneurs, always believed that digital was the way to go when we thought of public RFPs,” he asserts. “As such, we were ready and we had the necessary tools when our country's laws finally confirmed our beliefs on the subject.”

  • Internationalisation: opening their first overseas office in Portugal and certifying their platform to comply with EU regulations
  • Product development: making it easier to sign and execute public contracts through the platform, and deploying a machine learning API to more effectively connect buyers and suppliers

Public sector agencies in Brazil and Portugal that regularly issue RFPs. Private sector organisations that are looking to sell to these agencies.

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