Fundação Mário Leal Ferreira - FMLF

What Fundação Mário Leal Ferreira - FMLF does

Fundação Mário Leal Ferreira (FMLF) is a municipal public foundation of the Prefeitura Municipal de Salvador (Salvador, Bahia, Brazil) that serves as the city's designated technical arm for urban planning, project development, and city information management. The foundation coordinates all major urban requalification, neighborhood development, public space design, and shoreline regeneration projects for the municipality, developing plans in-house or through contracted firms and handing execution to municipal construction bodies such as Sucop and Seinfra. It serves a single institutional customer — the municipal government — with no commercial revenue model, operating entirely on municipal budget allocations supplemented by federal financing (Caixa Econômica Federal) and international cooperation agreements.

FMLF's core technology offering is Salvador Dados, a geoespatial municipal information system implemented with UNDP support that consolidates urban data for public managers, economic agents, and citizens. The foundation also maintains the Painel do IDESH, a Habitat Development Index dashboard built on ArcGIS for tracking urban quality across neighborhoods, and incorporates QualiSalvador research from EA/UFBA into its data platform. The foundation holds distinctive institutional assets including the Maquete de Salvador — the largest scale model in Brazil and one of the largest in the world, registered as Municipal Historical Heritage in December 2020 — and the Biblioteca FMLF, a technical library that archives Salvador's urban planning history.

The foundation's methodology is centered on participatory planning: every major project involves oficinas participativas (community workshops), field visits, and public consultations with residents, merchants, and local leaders before designs are finalized. FMLF also acts as a methodology exporter, having shared its urban planning approach with other municipalities (Teixeira de Freitas) and engaging in international cooperation (UNESCO, Government of Benin). The foundation is led by President Tânia Scofield, with Beatriz Lima as Director of Planning and Fagner Dantas as Chief of Staff, and is connected to the municipal Secretaria Municipal de Inovação e Tecnologia (SEMIT).

Name

Fundação Mário Leal Ferreira - FMLF

Legal name

Fundação Mário Leal Ferreira

Website

https://fmlf.salvador.ba.gov.br

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

FMLF is the municipal public foundation of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, responsible for all urban planning, requalification, and city information management for the Prefeitura Municipal de Salvador. It develops geoespatial systems (Salvador Dados), participatory neighborhood plans, and shoreline regeneration projects using municipal budget funding.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Urban Planning Services

NAICS

Administration of Housing Programs, Urban Planning, and Community Development (9251), Executive, Legislative, and Other General Government Support (921)

akta.pro primary industry

Infrastructure Planning, Capital Programs & Project Delivery Offices (PMOs) (BPAIALAJ)

Keywords

• Urban planning services
• Municipal information systems
• City requalification projects
• Neighborhood development plans
• Public space design

Headquarters

HQ city

Salvador

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, Others

Revenue model

1. Municipal Public Budget Allocation: FMLF is a public foundation funded entirely through the municipal budget of Salvador (Prefeitura Municipal de Salvador). Projects are financed through a combination of municipal funds, federal financing agreements (e.g., Caixa Econômica Federal loans), and international cooperation programs (UNDP). No commercial revenue generation.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

FMLF is the official municipal public foundation of Salvador, Bahia, dedicated to urban planning, neighborhood development, and city information management. It designs and coordinates major urban requalification projects across the city's coastline, historic center, and peripheral neighborhoods, develops neighborhood plans (Plano de Bairros), mobility plans, and social interest zone designations (ZEIS), and maintains Salvador Dados, the municipal geoespatial information system, along with a technical library and the Maquete de Salvador scale model.

Product overview

Fundação Mário Leal Ferreira (FMLF) operates as a municipal urban planning foundation rather than a traditional technology product company. Its core offerings consist of urban planning services, municipal information systems, and technical archives. The primary digital product is Salvador Dados, a geoespatial municipal information system that supports public management decisions. Supporting services include a technical library (Biblioteca) preserving urban planning documentation, a large-scale architectural model of the city (Maquete de Salvador), and an urban development index dashboard (Painel do IDESH). FMLF also delivers urban planning services including neighborhood development plans (Plano de Bairros), mobility plans, and social interest zone designations (ZEIS). The foundation coordinates major urban requalification projects across Salvador's coastline, historic center, and peripheral neighborhoods.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Salvador Dados Municipal geoespatial information system that provides urban data for decision-making by public managers, economic agents, and citizens, with the goal of increasing efficiency and transparency in city management. Incorporates urban quality research from EA/UFBA through the QualiSalvador project.
• Maquete de Salvador (Scale Model of Salvador) Largest scale model in Brazil and one of the largest in the world, depicting all neighborhoods of Salvador from known landmarks to newer areas. Officially recognized as Municipal Historical Heritage, tombada by the municipal government on December 1, 2020.
• Painel do IDESH (Habitat Development Index Dashboard) Urban development monitoring dashboard presenting the Índice de Desenvolvimento do HABITAT, tracking urban quality indicators across Salvador neighborhoods.
• Plano de Bairros (Neighborhood Development Plans) Neighborhood development planning instrument that establishes integrated and sustainable development proposals for city districts, with participatory community engagement. Includes Plano de Bairro do Comércio, Plano de Bairro de Canabrava, Plano de Bairro de Itapagipe, Plano da Ilha de Maré, and PILAR.
• Plano de Mobilidade do Centro Antigo de Salvador Urban mobility plan for Salvador's Historic Center focusing on pedestrian access and public transportation improvements.
• Zonas Especiais de Interesse Social (ZEIS) Special zones designation and planning for social interest areas, supporting land regularization in informal settlements.
• Biblioteca da FMLF (Technical Library) Technical library that preserves the memory of urban planning for the City of Salvador, containing archives, urban plans, and planning documents. Open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, providing research access to professionals, researchers, and the public.
• Requalificação de Ruas (Street Requalification Projects) Comprehensive urban requalification of streets including drainage, urban furniture, cycling infrastructure, and public lighting. Includes Ruas Completas interventions such as Rua Miguel Calmon and Rua Professor Sabino Silva.
• Requalificação da Orla (Shoreline Requalification) Comprehensive urban requalification of Salvador's shoreline, covering 29 km across 29 segments since 2013, including Barra, Ribeira, São Tomé de Paripe, Tubarão, Plataforma, Amaralina, Pituba, Jardim de Alah, Ondina, Piatã, and others, with total investment of R$475 million.
• Requalificação de Praças e Parques Urban requalification of squares and parks across Salvador, including Praça do Pé Preto (6,100 m²) and the Aquidabã square/terminal (over 5,000 m²).
• Requalificação de Espaços Simbólicos (Symbolic Space Requalification) Restoration and requalification of symbolic civic spaces, including the Elevador Lacerda (Lacerda Elevator) restoration which received an honorable mention at the LIT Lighting Design Awards 2025 for Architectural Lighting Design for Public Buildings.
• Soluções Baseadas na Natureza (Nature-Based Solutions) Environmental urban solutions applying nature-based approaches for sustainable urban development, including the Requalificação da Orla de Stella Maris, Praias do Flamengo e Ipitanga recognized by the Prêmio Antônio Sabino.
• Complexo Cidade da Música Music complex including Casa de Espetáculos, Escola de Arte e Tecnologia, and Museu da Música, built through restoration of 17th-century ruins.

Quantifiable outcome

• The Ruas Completas project on Rua Miguel Calmon reduced accidents with injuries from 11 (2018) to 3 (2019), with zero traffic deaths recorded since the intervention's completion in September 2019.
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• Instituto PedracoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 June 2026FMLF signed a contract with Instituto Pedra to develop the pedagogical project and implement the Escola de Ofícios Tradicionais de Salvador, a reference center for traditional construction techniques and professional qualification for heritage conservation in the Centro Histórico.
• Governo do Benin (Government of Benin)supportingStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 January 2026A delegation from the Government of Benin visited FMLF between January 24–30 to discuss the Casa do Benin restoration project, located in the Pelourinho and administered by the Fundação Gregório de Matos. The mission is part of a Cooperation Agreement signed by Mayor Bruno Reis in November 2024.
• Programa das Nações Unidas para o Desenvolvimento (PNUD/UNDP)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 29 March 2023FMLF is implementing the Sistema de Informação Municipal – Salvador Dados, a geoespatial urban information system for Salvador, with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The project aims to provide greater efficiency and transparency in city management through open data.
• Escola de Administração da Universidade Federal da Bahia (EA/UFBA)supportingTechnology or Integration · 29 March 2023FMLF and EA/UFBA signed a technical cooperation agreement to incorporate the QualiSalvador urban quality research data into the Salvador Dados information system. This project compiled extensive data on quality of life and population well-being perception in Salvador.
• UNESCOcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 August 2020UNESCO signed a cooperation agreement with the Prefeitura de Salvador (via FMLF) and Instituto Carlinhos Brown in August 2020 for the Projeto Pilar — a multidisciplinary initiative combining urban, cultural, educational, and economic actions for the sustainable development of the Pilar neighborhood.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• UN-Habitat: United Nations agency for sustainable urbanization. Engages with Brazilian municipalities on inclusive urban planning and slum upgrading — themes that overlap directly with FMLF's ZEIS and urbanization-of-informal-settlements programs.
• UNDP Brasil: United Nations Development Programme Brazil, which co-implements the Salvador Dados geoespatial system with FMLF. Operates as a strategic partner for technology transfer and institutional capacity building in Brazilian urban management.
• WRI Brasil: Brazilian arm of the World Resources Institute, which formally recognized FMLF's Ruas Completas project in its national Complete Streets report. Works across Brazilian cities on sustainable urban mobility and has direct programmatic overlap with FMLF's mobility work.
• Gehl Architects: People-centered urban design consultancy with extensive Latin American practice. Comparable to FMLF in methodology focus (public space, pedestrianization, participatory planning), but operates commercially rather than as a public foundation.

Direct peers

• São Paulo Urbanismo (SP-Urbanismo): Municipal urban planning company of São Paulo responsible for urban planning studies, projects, and geoespatial data systems for the largest Brazilian city. Closely analogous to FMLF's mandate, though at materially larger scale.
• EMURB - Empresa Municipal de Urbanização de Curitiba: Municipal urbanization company in Curitiba that executes and coordinates urban requalification, public space, and infrastructure projects — overlapping FMLF's execution and coordination role within a different Brazilian city.
• IPPUC - Instituto de Pesquisa e Planejamento Urbano de Curitiba: Municipal research and urban planning institute for Curitiba, Brazil. Performs the same role for Curitiba that FMLF performs for Salvador: producing master plans, geoespatial data systems, and coordinating large-scale urban interventions under the city government.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/fundacaomariolealferreira
• Instagraminstagram.com/fmlfsalvador
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/funda%C3%A7%C3%A3o-m%C3%A1rio-leal-ferreira---fmlf

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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