WebForce is the largest independent Brazilian internet audience. We have been an engine of innovation in the Brazilian internet for over 15 years, and believe our success and reputation are directly linked to our entrepreneurial spirit and passion for challenge. We are proud to have founded, invested in, and managed companies that have become icons in this market, and that have inextricably linked our story with the story of the development of the internet in Brazil from its very inception.
Mauro Bertaglia, Mauricio Meismith and Rodrigo Martinez found BBS São Paulo Online.
STI is sold to PSINet, the largest US corporate internet service provider. Caio Mário Paes de Andrade is general director of PSINet Brasil and responsible for M&A in Latin America. STI founders become PSINet executives.
hpG is sold to iG in one of the largest deals to date in the Brazilian internet market. Caio, Maurício and Mauro agree not to compete via investing in or working with new internet companies for 5 years.
Maber is listed among the "100 Best Places to Work in Brazil", an international award published by the Best Places to Work Institute, alongside some of the largest and most successful companies in Brazil. Pixcodelics is licensed to the Cartoon Network for broadcast throughout Latin America, Jetix (Disney) in Japan, and Animania (CableVision) in the USA.
From the Pixcodelics concept, arises Cosmopax, a virtual world for teenagers. In the same year, WebForce starts investing in the real estate website 123i, based on the model of the American site Zillow.com.
WF makes new acquisitions and launches new businesses, always supported by the strategic triad: reputation, technologic knowledge and ability to generate audience.
Paid-for internet services begin to take hold in the Brazilian market. Mauro, Mauricio and Rodrigo transform BBS São Paulo Online into STI. Within four years, they grow STI into the fourth largest internet service provider in Brazil.
Mauro, Maurício and Caio leave PSINet and found WebForce Networks, which creates and invests in several platform companies, including hpG. In less than a year, Mauro, Maurício and Caio grow hpG to become the third largest internet audience in Brazil.
WF branches out beyond the internet, and establishes two new platform companies: (i) Maber, a real estate brokerage company focused on the existing home market (not new construction), which was poorly organized and notorious for bad service; and (ii) Pixcodelics, the first Brazilian short form high definition animated cartoon series.
Free from non-compete agreemment, WebForce immediately launches XPG, a content network mixing hpG model with internationally famous websites such as Myspace, Tumblr and StambleUpon. In three years XPG becomes one of the largest Internet audiences in Brazil.
Maber is sold to Lopes, largest and most traditional Brazilian real state company. The transaction allows WebForce Networks to focus again on Internet only. XPG is now one of the ten largest audiences in Brazil.
Start-up: 1993
Business model: Internet service provider
Highlight: Fourth largest ISP in Brazil
Strategic exit: Acquired by PSINet for 28 million
Exit year: 1999
Start-up: 2000
Business model: Free Home Page
Highlight: Second largest audience BR Internet
Strategic exit: Acquired by iG for 55 million
Exit year: 2002
Start-up: 2004
Business model: Real Estate Company
Highlight: Innovative model. Secondary market
Strategic exit: Acquired by Lopes
Exit year: 2010
Is a co-founding partner of WebForce Networks, today responsible for the company's strategic / new business development and M&A. Caio began his career in marketing before becoming a corporate executive, as a senior sales manager at two consumer goods and retail companies. Caio later became CEO of PSINet's Latin American operations, where he was responsible for overseeing the company's rapid regional expansion. Caio left PSINet to become an entrepreneur. Caio holds a post graduate degree in marketing from Harvard University and an MBA from Duke University. He is also a musician, and interested in research on the changes that Internet promotes in society. Caio is from Rio de Janeiro, where he learned to love Fluminense Football Club.
Is a co-founding partner of WebForce Networks, where he focuses on portfolio company operations and strategy execution. Prior to Webforce, Mauro co-founded STI together with Webforce's third partner, Mauricio, which became PSINet's largest acquisition in Latin America under Caio's management. After the sale, Mauro became director of PSINet's wholesale operations in Latin America and was responsible for introducing Starmedia and iG to the Internet market. From 2006, Mauro was the CEO of Maber, a WebForce portfolio company, until its sale to Lopes in 2010. Today, he is the CEO of 123i, another WebForce subsidiary. Mauro is fascinated by information technology and its application in people's everyday lives. He is from São Paulo and a fan of the Palmeiras football team.
Is a co-founding partner of WebForce Networks, where has primary responsible for the firm's financial planning. Mauricio, a born entrepreneur, taught programming at Datasul, at the age of 13. At the age of 16, he became a consultant for Multisoluções, a company that represented Apple in Brazil. At 19, he co-founded and ran STI, developing extensive experience in IT and business administration. Mauricio is from São Paulo, has 4 kids, is a near–professional level tennis player, and does not follow football as his partners do.
