There is a common assumption in technology investment that serving low-income or underserved markets means accepting reduced commercial returns. Haroldo Jacobovicz has spent his career questioning that assumption, and his experience building companies in Brazil has given him a different perspective on where the real opportunities lie.
Underserved markets, he argues, are often genuine commercial opportunities that have been overlooked, not charity cases that require subsidy to function. Small companies with limited budgets are willing to pay for solutions that materially improve their productivity — provided those solutions are designed with cost-benefit in mind from the outset. The problem is not willingness to pay; it is that most products were not designed with these users’ constraints as a primary consideration.
Arlequim Technologies is built around that insight. Its computer virtualization model extends the life of older hardware by processing demanding tasks remotely and returning results to the user’s existing device. For a small business that cannot afford new equipment, or for an institution running aging machines, this is not a consolation product — it is a practical solution that serves a real need at a viable price point.
Government contracts represent another mechanism for reaching populations that private markets alone would not serve. Through agreements with city halls, educational departments, and public service agencies, technology can reach students and citizens who interact with public services daily. That model distributes benefit widely without depending on individual purchasing power, and it creates a sustainable commercial structure for the provider.
Jacobovicz is candid about the tension between commercial sustainability and the goal of maximum reach. He does not resolve it by pretending it does not exist, but by designing business models where the two are more aligned than they initially appear. The populations that seem least commercially attractive are often those with the most pressing need for better tools and the most to gain from them.
His broader view is that technology designed only for affluent, well-connected users represents a failure of imagination as much as a missed commercial and social opportunity. Designing with diversity of circumstance in mind — different devices, different connection speeds, different levels of prior experience — produces better products for everyone while opening access to populations that have historically been left out.