(Reuters) – Brazilian private equity funds are pushing ahead with a plan to win investment commitments from insurers and pension funds that are seeking higher returns on over 1.1 trillion reais (about $550 billion) of money under management.

In the past month, Intel Capital has announced two investments in Brazilian big data and analytics companies. The latest investment came today when Intel Capital announced it backed Geofusion, a Brazilian company providing “geomarketing” data analytics and intelligence to enterprise customers. The amount of the funding is undisclosed. The announcement follows an undisclosed investment it made a few weeks ago in WebRadar,

Newly launched venture capital fund Redpoint e.ventures announced its first deal in Brazil, having funded the Series A round of Minuto Seguros, an online insurance broker. The amount of the round was undisclosed, but it was believed to be less than $5 million.

Redpoint Ventures, in partnership with e.ventures, have raised a $130 million fund from LPs to invest in early stage tech companies in Brazil. The fund is the first new fund raised by e.ventures, formerly known as BV Capital, since it announced its rebranding just over a week ago. Redpoint e.ventures will be led by Yann de [...]

Investors are going nuts for Brazil, and the latest firms to focus on the Latin American country are Redpoint Ventures and BV Capital‘s eVentures. The firms have partnered to form Sao Paulo-based Redpoint eVentures to invest in the Brazilian market. The firm will be led by Yann de Vries and Anderson Thees. Jeff Brody, Redpoint’s [...]

Just a few years ago entrepreneurial activity in Brazil was largely focused on software. Now companies are popping up in health care, manufacturing and digital signage.

Last year, the venture capital arm of the computer chip maker backed five companies in this up and coming South American economy. It announced two of them on Friday. It also doubled its investment staff.

We’ve got a new feature that we think you’ll find compelling. It’s a list of the 10 most-shared peHUB stories for the week, as judged by Tweetminster. We’ve been using Tweetminster since July to bring you interesting links from around the Web. The service uses an algorithm to identify the most influential tweeters in venture capital and private equity, then tracks the links those people are sharing.

1. Question of the Week: Does Zuck Do Enough to Protect Your Privacy? – by Luisa Beltran
2. Electric Car Startup Aptera Shuts Down, Idealab Takes Hit of More than $20M – Reuters
3. Founders Fund on Monday Meetings, Patience, and That New $625 Million Fund – by Connie Loizos
4. Slideshow: Maine Reveals Bite Taken By Fees, Expenses – by David Toll
5. Zynga Rival Nexon Prices IPO – by Reuters
6. Facebook Said to Acquire Gowalla as Internal Hiring Expands – by Reuters
7. VCJ Cover Story: The Rise of the Celeb Investors – by Tom Stein
8. Eight Steps To Mastering Small Company Acquisitions – by Ben Smith
9. Tony Roma’s Still Up For Sale, while Krystal Co. Auction in Second Stage – by Luisa Beltran
10. VC Takes Off in Brazil, But First, a Giant Leap of Faith – by Connie Loizos

Brazil is booming, thanks to growing demand for its natural resources, like wood, steel, oil, minerals (and Brazilian supermodels). Its resultant GDP growth — projected to average 4.1% through 2040, compared with 2.5% for the U.S. — has transformed dozens of consumer Web and mobile startups into exceedingly hot properties that stateside VCs are quietly [...]