<h3 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-meet-the-winner-of-web-summit-rio-2024-s-pitch-powered-by-the-ministry-of-science-technology-and-innovation">Meet the winner of Web Summit Rio 2024’s PITCH, powered by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.</h3>



SaaS startup <a href="https://deco.cx/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">deco.cx</a> has won Web Summit Rio 2024’s PITCH competition, powered by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The Brazilian startup is headquartered in Rio de Janeiro.&nbsp;



Co-founder Guilherme Rodrigues collected the prize on Center Stage at Riocentro, having won out over Canadian healthtech startup VoxCell BioInnovation, and Brazilian AI and machine learning startup Manycontent.&nbsp;



Deco.cx is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that allows users to build high-performance ecommerce platforms. Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, deco.cx has employees based all over Brazil, including in Paraíba, São Paulo and Fortaleza.



“Winning the PITCH competition shows that a Brazilian company can address a global market and build a global product. Brazil is a giant market, but unfortunately that means lots of people assume that Brazilian companies can only serve the Brazilian market. And that’s what we’re out to prove – that it’s wrong; that we can serve global markets with a Brazilian platform,” said Guilherme Rodrigues, co-founder of deco.cx.



Guilherme and his co-founders Luciano Júnior and Rafael Crespo met while working at an ecommerce management company, before deciding to set up deco.cx in 2022. The company aims to build the largest multi-platform ecommerce community in the world, and is already backed by a community of more than 2,800 members.&nbsp;



This is Guilherme, Luciano and Rafael’s second time attending Web Summit Rio with deco.cx, but this was their first time pitching the company on Center Stage.



“It’s great and nerve-wracking at the same time, especially talking on Center Stage. But it’s amazing to have so many people from all over the world here, and to get to know a lot of great people.”



PITCH, powered by Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, is Web Summit Rio’s startup competition, which brings together some of the world’s most promising early-stage startups for a live onstage battle.



40 startups took part in the group stages of the PITCH competition, and eight startups competed in the semi-final.&nbsp;



A judging panel comprising Brazil’s national secretary for technology and innovation at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Guila Calheiros; Kaszek partner Santiago Fossatti; and Mundi Ventures investment director Rafaela Andrade selected deco.cx as the winner.&nbsp;



1,066 startups from 42 countries attended Web Summit Rio 2024. A record 45 percent of these startups were women-founded – the highest proportion of any Web Summit event in the company’s global roster, and more than double the proportion of women-founded startups that were at Web Summit Rio last year. 



Main image of Guilherme Rodrigues and Rafael Crespo, co-founders of <a href="http://deco.cx/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">deco.cx</a>

Deco.cx triumphs as Web Summit Rio 2024 PITCH champion

Here’s what you missed at Collision 2024

Record number of women-founded startups at Web Summit Rio 2024