Record Growth and Digitization Boost Small Business Success in São Paulo and Brazil in 2025

In 2025, São Paulo witnessed a significant surge in entrepreneurship, registering 378,566 new companies from January to November—an 11.3% rise compared to the same period in 2024. This increase reflects the effectiveness of initiatives by the São Paulo Commercial Registry (Jucesp) and the Secretary of Economic Development, which focused on simplifying business registration processes and enhancing digital services. A major achievement was the Facilita SP program, implemented statewide to classify economic activities by risk level, enabling low-risk businesses to bypass certain licensing requirements. This reform, adopted by 645 municipalities, accelerated business openings and improved legal certainty. The Facilita SP digital portal facilitated over 150,000 users and expedited viability processes, reducing the average business opening time to just 2 hours and 12 minutes for eligible registrations compared to the state's average of 1 day and 10 hours.

Nationwide, Sebrae is set to break records by surpassing 60 million service interactions with small business entrepreneurs in 2025. Already, over 58 million atendimentos were completed by October 2023. Sebrae’s digital solutions, including its app with over 4.5 million atendimentos and an electronic invoice system generating more than 48 billion invoices, have been pivotal in supporting micro and small entrepreneurs in managing and growing their businesses. Décio Lima, Sebrae’s president, emphasized the institution’s role in fostering income generation and job creation by aiding entrepreneurs in starting, organizing, and improving their enterprises.

Collectively, these advancements in São Paulo and nationwide at Sebrae signify substantial progress in creating a more accessible and supportive environment for small businesses in Brazil during 2025.