INSTITUTO PROTEA

What INSTITUTO PROTEA does

Instituto Protea is a nonprofit social organization (organização social sem fins lucrativos) founded in 2018 and headquartered in Pinheiros, São Paulo, Brazil. The organization funds complete breast cancer treatment — including exams, mastology consultations, surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy — for low-income women who are routed to care through Brazil's public healthcare referral system (SUS CROSS and Hebe Camargo queues) and treated at Hospital Santa Marcelina under a core operational partnership. Patients do not select the organization; rather, Protea accelerates them through the public queue by absorbing the full cost of treatment, which averages approximately 22,000 BRL per patient over an 11-month course.

The core product is the "Protea Amar" treatment funding program, supported by a portfolio of sub-initiatives: "Cuida Mama" maps the patient journey from primary to tertiary care; "Jornada Protea" serves as an educational resource bank with doctor and patient videos; and "Grupo Cores Protea" runs a support group offering art therapy, psychotherapy, stretching, physiotherapy, and micropigmentation. In June 2022, Protea deployed a research-stage artificial intelligence project co-developed with MIT and funded by the Patrick McGovern Foundation that analyzes mammography images to estimate 5-year breast cancer risk; it remains a research project rather than a commercial product.

Protea is funded entirely through donations from corporations and individuals, with channels including direct corporate giving, PIX, bank transfer, international transfers, and the Nota Fiscal Paulista tax-credit donation program. Sports fundraising events (Corrida e Caminhada Protea, Pedal pela Cura) and the Protea Podcast with Ana Furtado function as awareness and donor-acquisition vehicles. The organization is audited annually by KPMG since its founding, holds a CAF America validation seal, and operates with no parent company, no subsidiaries, and no disclosed financial figures.

Name

INSTITUTO PROTEA

Legal name

Instituto Protea

Website

https://protea.org.br

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Instituto Protea is a São Paulo-based nonprofit founded in 2018 that funds complete breast cancer treatment for low-income Brazilian women referred through the SUS public healthcare system to Hospital Santa Marcelina, supplemented by an MIT-developed AI mammography research project and a network of awareness, support, and fundraising programs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Nonprofit Healthcare Services

NAICS

Voluntary Health Organizations (813212)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Disease-Specific Research & Support (e.g., Cancer, Diabetes, ALS) (BPAGACAA)

Keywords

• Breast cancer treatment
• Nonprofit healthcare services
• Cancer patient support
• AI mammography analysis
• Medical fundraising

Headquarters

HQ city

São Paulo

HQ country

Brazil

HQ region

Latin America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Corporate Donations: Companies donate funds to cover exams, consultations, surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy treatments for low-income breast cancer patients.
2. Individual Donations: Individuals make financial contributions via PIX, bank deposit, international transfers, or through the Nota Fiscal Paulista program where consumers donate their tax credits to the organization.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Instituto Protea is a nonprofit social organization that funds complete breast cancer treatment—exams, consultations, surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy—for low-income women in Brazil, delivered through its partnership with Hospital Santa Marcelina in São Paulo. The organization also operates the Protea Amar core program, patient journey mapping (Cuida Mama), an educational resource bank (Jornada Protea), a support group (Grupo Cores Protea), and an MIT-developed AI research project that analyzes mammographies to estimate five-year breast cancer risk.

Product overview

Instituto Protea is a nonprofit social organization founded in 2018 that provides access to dignified, quality breast cancer treatment for low-income women in Brazil through partnerships with Hospital Santa Marcelina in São Paulo. The organization operates as a unified service focused on accelerating treatment and reducing mortality. The core offering is Protea Amar, which funds complete treatment including exams, consultations, surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Supporting initiatives include Cuida Mama (patient journey mapping), Jornada Protea (educational resource bank), Grupo Cores Protea (support group), and sports fundraising events (Pedal Protea and Corrida e Caminhada Protea). The organization also conducts an AI research project in partnership with MIT for mammography analysis.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Protea Amar: Main project through which the institute funds exams, consultations, surgeries, and complete treatment for low-income women with breast cancer
• Cuida Mama
• Jornada Protea
• Grupo de Apoio Cores Protea
• Pedal pela Cura
• Corrida e Caminhada Protea

Products and services

• Protea Amar
• Cuida Mama
• Jornada Protea
• Grupo Cores Protea (Support Group)
• AI Breast Cancer Prediction Project
• Pedal pela Cura (Pedal Protea)
• Corrida e Caminhada Protea
• Podcast Protea com Ana Furtado

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

AI capability2 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2022Developed the AI breast cancer prediction project that analyzes mammographies to estimate cancer likelihood within 5 years. Implemented as research project at Hospital Santa Marcelina in June 2022.
• Hospital Santa MarcelinacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018Primary healthcare partner where breast cancer treatments are delivered. Patients are referred through the SUS CROSS system and receive exams, consultations, surgeries, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy funded by Protea.
• KPMGsupportingOthersExternal audit firm that has audited Instituto Protea's financial statements since the organization's founding.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves2 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Regional players

• LACOG (Latin American Cooperative Oncology Group): Brazil-headquartered oncology research network running clinical trials across Latin America. Comparable as a Brazil-based cancer organization with a research orientation, though LACOG's focus is clinical research rather than patient treatment funding.

Broad incumbents

• GRAACC: Brazilian nonprofit supporting pediatric cancer treatment at a partner hospital in São Paulo. Closely comparable operating model — funding cancer treatment at a public hospital via corporate donations — but focused on pediatric rather than breast cancer.
• Susan G. Komen: Global flagship breast cancer nonprofit. Comparable disease-vertical mission and donor-funded model, with dramatically larger scale, brand recognition, and an international footprint — relevant for benchmarking what scaled breast cancer NGOs can become.
• A.C. Camargo Cancer Center: Leading Brazilian cancer hospital and research institution. Overlapping mission in cancer treatment for underserved populations, with deeper clinical infrastructure and a broader cancer-type portfolio than Protea's single-hospital model.
• Hospital de Amor: One of Brazil's largest cancer treatment and research centers, headquartered in Barretos. Comparable as a major cancer-care nonprofit institution in Brazil, but with broader scope (multiple cancer types) and significantly larger scale than Protea.
• Susan G. Komen Brasil: Brazilian chapter of the global breast cancer nonprofit. Directly comparable mission of breast cancer patient support and awareness, with stronger brand recognition and deeper funding base, making it a broad incumbent in the same disease vertical.

Direct peers

• Fundação do Câncer: Brazilian cancer-focused foundation supporting research, prevention, and patient navigation. Comparable as a donor-funded nonprofit operating in the Brazilian cancer space with overlapping awareness and patient-support programs.
• FEMAMA: Federação Brasileira de Instituições Filantrópicas de Apoio à Saúde da Mama — a coalition of Brazilian breast cancer nonprofits. Directly comparable as it represents the same disease-vertical, mission-aligned NGO ecosystem in Brazil.
• Instituto Oncoguia: Brazilian cancer patient advocacy and navigation organization. Comparable mission of supporting cancer patients through the healthcare system, with a similar donor-funded, nonprofit operating model targeting Brazilian patients.
• Fundação Laço Rosa: Brazilian nonprofit focused on breast cancer awareness and patient support for low-income women. Highly comparable to Instituto Protea as a fellow disease-specific breast cancer NGO operating in Brazil with donor-funded programs.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/institutoprotea
• Facebookfacebook.com/institutoprotea
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/institutoprotea
• Instagraminstagram.com/institutoprotea

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about INSTITUTO PROTEA