São Paulo – The story of Kinebot begins long before the company was officially registered. It starts when Cauê Marinho, 32, born in Campinas, Brazil’s São Paulo state, and now based in Curitiba, was still a technical high school student studying administration.
“I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur from an early age,” Marinho said. At 14, he was already looking for ways to create a business that could scale internationally—and, ideally, sell outside Brazil.
And it was this ambition that led him to study administration, then civil engineering, and finally enter the tech world with the creation of the startup in 2021. The final product—a software that uses artificial intelligence to capture 30 angles per second for each of a worker’s body parts, improving their health through ergonomic analyses—has already reached over 30 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Morocco.
“In the Arab markets, our entry point was through corporate clients. Now Kinebot is the only globally approved provider by Procter & Gamble (P&G) for ergonomic analyses in these countries. As the multinational’s international units adopt the technology, the startup grows alongside this expansion,” explains the entrepreneur.
Saudi Arabia was the company’s first Arab market in 2023. The following year, it expanded to Egypt and Morocco. Operations are conducted remotely and continuously, with monthly meetings in English to coordinate with local teams.
“One of the main contrasts between Brazil and Arab countries is the level of regulation. While Brazil’s is deemed stricter, the requirements there are simpler,” explains Marinho.
“In these markets, the platform is used mainly to reduce risks, absenteeism, and musculoskeletal pain in industrial activities, rather than to comply with specific regulations. But the focus is the same as here: we genuinely aim to improve workers’ health.”
In the three Arab countries where the startup already operates, the software is used across various industrial sectors, following the company’s global profile: meatpacking, logistics, chemical, textile, consumer goods, appliances, mining, lumber, hospitals, and even insurance companies.
Ergonomics and international presence
Although the term ergonomics often brings offices to mind, the startup mainly operates in industries with repetitive tasks, such as meatpacking plants and manufacturing factories.
Change and technology are the watchwords for the Brazilian company. With Kinebot’s software, the worker analysis process—which used to take up to 30 hours—can now be completed in just 20 minutes.
The platform uses computer vision—a branch of artificial intelligence—to identify angles, movements, and physical loads, with accuracy validated by laboratory equipment. The client records a video, uploads it to the system, and automatically receives a risk analysis, indicators, action plans, and reports aligned with regulations.
The software currently operates in six languages: Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, German, and Mandarin. The company also offers training in three languages to support its clients.
The expansion beyond Brazil began early. In 2021, the same year the company was founded, Marinho went to Colombia at the invitation of an insurance company, which later became a client. In 2022, the partner presented the solution in Chile; in 2023, the startup joined Sebrae’s internationalization program in New York, United States, where it maintains an office and a dedicated professional to serve clients in English.
Currently, more than 100 companies use the Brazilian startup’s solution, covering 500 facilities and over 400,000 workers assessed worldwide.
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Report by Rebecca Vettore, in collaboration with ANBA
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
