Americas Quarterly - Summer 2008

Innovators

Guto, a former telecom engineer who returned to PUC for graduate studies and eventually to teach, knew that many of the products developed in Latin American universities rarely become commercial ventures. But he decided to gamble on the “Pig,” whose name comes from the way it roots through oil and gas pipes to find leaks. In 1998, Guto and two partners decided to invest $20,000 to commercialize the product and form Pipe Way. They licensed the technology, paying royalties to the university and to Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company that financed the research, and started to bid on public contracts.

They won their first big contract in 1999: a project to monitor and check 1,176 kilometers of pipes for Petrobras. At the time, Pipe Way had seven employees. Today, with operations in Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, there are nearly 60 employees.

In May 2008, the company founded Pipe Way International, and started operations in Texas. With 400,000 kilometers of oil and gas pipelines (Brazil has 20,000), Texas represents the company’s biggest challenge yet. But it doesn’t faze Guto. “ To be able to compete, we never stopped investing in technology,” says Pereira da Silva. In fact, he’s now trying to encourage others to duplicate his success. Pipe-Way supports research at five other universities in Brazil.

Pipe Way International founder, Guto, and his “Pig”

I Gabriela Cuevas t’s not often—especially in old professor at the Pontifícia Univer- Latin America—that an in- sidade Católica (PUC) in Rio de Ja- ^Barronnovation developed in a uni- neiro, José Augusto Pereira da Silva Mexico ^versity ^becomes ^a ^profitable ^business. ⁽“^Guto”^). ^With ^adjustments ^and ^a ^{soft- Maybe} ^it ^helps ^to ^have ^a ^clever ^name. ^ware ^upgrade, ^the “^Pig” ^has ^becomeThe “Pipe Pig,” a tool used to detect the signature product of the Brazil- _leakages _and _weaknesses _in _oil _and _ian _company _{Pipe Way} _{International,} G ^abriela ^Cuevas ^Barron ^isused to standing out. In _2007, _when _constructiongas pipes, was developed by a team a global business whose annual rev- was set to begin in Mexico City on of researchers that included 40-year- enues now reach $6.2 million. what would have been Latin Amer-