dehaze to Brazil: How they tackled the challenge
Overview
dehaze builds proprietary AI infrastructure that identifies the risk of chronic disease earlier and more precisely, using health data that already exists. The model works where others cannot, on unharmonized data, and it helps integrated health insurers, those operating their own clinics and laboratories, cut up to 10 percent of their annual health spend by finding the patients at risk while prevention is still possible. Founded in October 2023 by three serial entrepreneurs, Marius Klages, Jan Baumbach, and Andreas Santoro, and built and validated in Munich, the company states its claim in four words: better care costs less.
The Challenge
In the summer of 2025, dehaze achieved the technical breakthrough that made the model produce real results. That turned the question from research into commercialization, and after in-depth market research the team chose Latin America, with two candidate markets in mind.
Brazil made the strongest case for three reasons. It is the ethnically most diverse country in the world, which reduces bias in a healthcare AI model trained there. It has a population of more than 200 million people. And its healthcare system suits the approach, with SUS, the public system, covering more than 170 million people across federal, state, and municipal levels, alongside 50 million people in private insurance largely held by verticalized insurers.
The obstacle was never the market logic. It was access. dehaze sells into high trust enterprise environments, which in Brazil means governors, mayors, state secretaries of health, and the presidents of private insurance companies. As Klages puts it, those are not people you reach on LinkedIn or by email, and they are usually not standing at conferences either. He knew the region well, having spent four years with a global logistics group in Mexico and having built a company in Barcelona before founding dehaze, so he understood that business runs on relationships and on WhatsApp. Knowing that is not the same as having the network. Entering a market where the team had neither grown up nor built a professional network made access to the right people the hardest part of the job.
How German Accelerator Helped
Market Discovery Program: two markets down to one. In August and September, dehaze went to Argentina and Brazil through the Market Discovery Program. The core value was access to additional contacts in the Brazilian market, expanding the network toward potential customers and multipliers. On the back of it, the team ramped up operations in Brazil.
Market Access Program: a mentor every week. Everything intensified in the second program. From February onward, a continuous mentor worked with dehaze in weekly sessions on the go-to-market approaches the team was considering, while sales activity continued through the nine months between the two programs.
Two weeks in the market. The in-person weeks in Brazil opened ecosystems the team had not known existed, including Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Grupo Fleury, ABSS, the Brazilian Health Startups Association, InovaHC, and local health tech founders. Two meetings stood out. Invest.rio, the city team that brings startups to Rio de Janeiro, opened the doors to two further highly relevant contacts. Firjan, often described as the Brazilian Fraunhofer, arrived with a clear idea of what it wanted from the meeting and moved straight into concrete projects that could be set up together.
Connections on request, beyond the program weeks. The support did not end with the trip. When dehaze has a specific request, a speaking slot at a particular conference or a contact at a particular customer, German Accelerator and Start2Group work to facilitate the connection.
Outcomes and Achievements
• First customers in Brazil signed and currently onboarding, with the company now operating across the country
• Commercial focus set on Brazil after the Market Discovery Program covered both candidate markets
• Access to Brazilian healthcare ecosystems the team had not been aware of beforehand
• Two program meetings that converted into substance, one opening two further relevant contacts through Invest.Rio, one moving directly into concrete joint projects with Firjan
• Nine months of continuous sales activity between the two programs, supported by weekly mentor sessions from February onward
• A value proposition proven enough to put a number on it: up to 10 percent of annual health spend saved for integrated insurers
• Marius Klages relocating to São Paulo to represent the company locally and build the local structure
• The U.S. and Europe identified as the next markets, with timing still open
“Better care costs less. The hard part was never proving that – it was getting into the room with the people who can actually buy it. Believe in the impact, and continue until proven wrong.”
Marius Klages, Founder and CEO, dehaze
Featured Case Studies
Do You Have Any Questions?
