Fundação de Apoio a Pesquisa e ao Desenvolvimento - FAPED

What Fundação de Apoio a Pesquisa e ao Desenvolvimento - FAPED does

Fundação de Apoio a Pesquisa e ao Desenvolvimento (FAPED) is a private non-profit support foundation headquartered in Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais, Brazil, founded in July 1995 by researchers from Embrapa Milho e Sorgo. The organization provides administrative, financial, procurement, and event management services to Brazilian agricultural research institutions, holding formal accreditation to operate across all Embrapa decentralized units nationwide. Its primary customer base includes Embrapa, EPAMIG, EMPAER, and select universities, with financial partnerships extending to FINEP and BNDES.

FAPED's core product is the Conveniar web-based platform, which provides integrated financial project management with separate portals for project coordinators, internal collaborators, suppliers, and event management, plus a public Transparency Portal for accountability reporting. The platform enables real-time project tracking, workflow organization, and procurement management. A secondary offering is the sale of agricultural technical publications (books) priced between R$4 and R$100, produced in partnership with research institutions.

The business model is managed services on a non-profit basis: FAPED earns administrative fees as a percentage or fixed amount from project resources managed on behalf of partner institutions, rather than charging direct fees for services. Go-to-market is sales-led through institutional partnerships within the Brazilian agricultural research community, supported by participation in industry events (ENFACO, CONFIES) and a digital presence via website and social media. As of mid-2026, FAPED employs 41 collaborators, has managed 1,280 projects and 702 events cumulatively, and recently assumed governance of the AgNest agtech innovation environment.

Name

Fundação de Apoio a Pesquisa e ao Desenvolvimento - FAPED

Legal name

Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa e ao Desenvolvimento - FAPED

Website

https://faped.org.br

Company type

Private

Founded year

1995

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

FAPED is a Brazilian non-profit support foundation, founded in 1995, that provides administrative, financial, and project management services to agricultural research institutions, primarily across all Embrapa decentralized units nationwide, via its Conveniar web platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Research Administration Services

akta.pro primary industry

General Ledger & Close (Journal Entries, Month-End Close, Reconciliations) (BPAAAGAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Accounts Payable (Invoice Processing, 2/3-Way Match, Vendor Payments) (BPAAAGAA), Order-to-Cash (O2C) Operations (Order Admin, Credit, Invoicing, Collections Handoff) (BPAAAGAK), Tax Operations Support (Indirect Tax, Withholding, Compliance Admin) (BPAAAGAI)

Keywords

• Research project management
• Agricultural research support
• Financial administration services
• Scientific publication distribution
• Institutional procurement services

Headquarters

HQ city

Sete Lagoas

HQ country

Brazil

HQ region

Latin America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Administrative and Financial Project Management Services: As a nonprofit support foundation, FAPED does not charge clients directly for its services. Instead, it earns a percentage or fixed fee from project resources managed on behalf of partner institutions (primarily Embrapa and other Brazilian agricultural research entities). FAPED also publishes and sells technical-scientific books on agriculture and related topics, generating secondary revenue from the sale of publications.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

FAPED is a nonprofit support foundation that provides administrative, financial, and procurement management of research projects, courses, extension activities, and events on behalf of Brazilian agricultural research institutions, principally Embrapa and its decentralized units. It delivers these services through the proprietary Conveniar web-based platform, which enables real-time project tracking, role-based workflows for coordinators, collaborators, suppliers, and events, and public transparency reporting. It also sells technical-scientific agricultural publications produced in partnership with research institutions.

Product overview

FAPED operates as a project management and administrative support foundation offering the Conveniar web-based platform as its core product, which provides integrated modules for project coordination, supplier management, event organization, and public transparency. The organization supplements its digital platform with professional services including event management, resource capture for research projects, and procurement services. FAPED also distributes agricultural technical publications through its publications program. The Conveniar system serves as the central hub connecting researchers, project coordinators, collaborators, and suppliers within a unified workflow management environment.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Conveniar Web-based financial project management system for research support foundations, enabling coordinators to track project progress in real time, collaborators to manage tasks, suppliers to interface with procurement, and administrators to oversee events and transparency reporting. Includes role-based portals for coordinators, collaborators, suppliers, events/courses, and a Transparency Portal.

Quantifiable outcome

• FAPED manages 1,280 projects and 702 events, supported by 41 collaborators over 30 years of operation.

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and strategic.

• Embrapa (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1995Embrapa is FAPED's primary and founding strategic partner. FAPED was instituted by Embrapa Milho e Sorgo researchers in 1995. FAPED is accredited to act in all Embrapa decentralized units across Brazil, managing administrative and financial operations of Embrapa projects, courses, extension activities, and events. The partnership aims to strengthen the relationship between research and the productive/social environment in agricultural research and development.
• EPAMIG (Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária de Minas Gerais)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEPAMIG is listed among FAPED's supported institutions. FAPED manages research projects and activities for EPAMIG, providing administrative and financial support for agricultural research projects in Minas Gerais.
• EMPAER (Empresa Mato-Grossense de Pesquisa, Assistência e Extensão Rural)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEMPAER is listed among FAPED's supported institutions. FAPED provides administrative and financial management services for EMPAER research and extension projects in Mato Grosso.
• Universidade São João del-Rei (UFSJ)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerUFSJ is listed among FAPED's supported institutions. FAPED manages projects involving UFSJ, providing administrative and financial support for research collaboration.
• AgNest (Ambiente de Inovação)strategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerAgNest is an innovation environment focused on agricultural experimentation, digital agriculture, rural connectivity, and open innovation in the agricultural sector. FAPED manages the AgNest governance council and issues technology offers (Oferta Tecnológica) to invite companies to participate as innovation partners in managing the AgNest environment. FAPED has issued technology offers in 2023 and 2024 to select companies as operational managers and innovation partners for AgNest.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Fundação de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento da Extensão e Pesquisa (FADEPE): Brazilian research support foundation offering project administration, financial management, and procurement services to universities and research institutions. Highly comparable operating model, with web-based project portals and accreditation to act with federal research entities similar to FAPED's role with Embrapa.
• Fundação de Ciência, Aplicações e Tecnologia Espaciais (FUNCATE): Brazilian 'fundação de apoio' administering projects, events, and procurement for partner research institutions in technology domains. Comparable service mix (project management, resource capture, scholarship administration) and institutional accreditation profile to FAPED, though specialized in space and technology rather than agriculture.
• Fundação Arthur Bernardes (Funarbe): Brazilian 'fundação de apoio' that provides administrative and financial management of research projects for partner universities and research institutions. Operates an analogous outsourced research administration model with a web-based project platform, making it one of the closest structural comparables to FAPED.
• Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa, Extensão e Ensino em Ciências Agrárias e da Saúde (FAPEU): Brazilian foundation focused on agricultural and health sciences research administration, providing financial and project management for partner institutions. Closely mirrors FAPED's vertical specialization in agricultural research support and its project-based administrative fee model.

Others

• Conselho Nacional das Fundações Estaduais de Amparo à Pesquisa (CONFAP): Council that aggregates Brazil's state-level research foundations, including comparable 'fundações de apoio'. Serves as an ecosystem association rather than a direct competitor, but its membership and policy work directly shape the operating environment for foundations like FAPED.
• Conselho Nacional das Fundações de Apoio às Instituições de Ensino Superior e de Pesquisa (CONFIES): National council of Brazilian 'fundações de apoio' supporting universities and research institutions. FAPED actively participates in CONFIES events (e.g., the 1º Encontro de Contadores do CONFIES), making this the most direct peer-association counterpart for industry coordination and benchmarking.

Broad incumbents

• Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária de Minas Gerais (EPAMIG): Minas Gerais state agricultural research company and one of FAPED's listed supported institutions. Comparable in research mandate to Embrapa but smaller and state-focused; functions both as a customer relationship and as an adjacent research-institution peer whose administrative needs shape FAPED's service mix.
• Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG): State-level research foundation for Minas Gerais that funds and supports research projects statewide, headquartered in the same state as FAPED. Significantly larger scale and grantmaking mandate, but operates in the same Brazilian state research ecosystem and interacts with similar institutional clients.
• Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa): Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation and FAPED's primary institutional customer and founding partner. Not a direct competitor but the dominant incumbent that defines demand for FAPED's services and whose accreditation framework sets the regulatory bar all peer 'fundações de apoio' must meet.
• Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP): Largest Brazilian state research foundation, funding and administering research projects across São Paulo state. Operates at much greater scale and across all research disciplines, but represents the broader incumbent class of Brazilian research support institutions whose projects FAPED-adjacent foundations help administer.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/faped.org.br
• Instagraminstagram.com/faped_
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/faped-fundacao-de-apoio-a-pesquisa-e-ao-desenvolvimento

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles19 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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