If you think about it, Instagram, originally developed as a silly app to check into bars and take pictures of beer, had it right. The world is about ‘mobile first’. And to that end, the emerging worlds of the so-called BRICK nations are clearly ‘mobile first’. So it’s interesting that Appies, an accelerator out of Brazil, has now announced its first seed round, (terms not undisclosed) from Trindade Investimentos.
Appies plans to back mobile application developers not startups, and sees where that takes it. Admittedly, not every app developer wants to start a business or a startup. They just have a good idea for an app.
The company has been created by long time Brazilian entrepreneur Bob Wollheim and app developer Dirceu Pauka.
“Everyone is aiming at Silicon Valley. We look horizontally towards India, Russia, China, Brazil and beyond. Devs know how to code, we will help them with the business and will transform them into geekpreneurs,” says Wollheim.
Why are apps a big deal in Brazil? According to national telecom agency Anatel, Brazil has 224 million cell phones for 190 million inhabitants. So mobile development is a big deal.
Appies is, at the moment, based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It’s Creating a co-working space for app developers, running events and programs, hackathons, the usual thing.
Partners now include mobile operators Telefonica, Vivo and affiliate program Lomadee.