Technology businesses tend to be defined by the problems their founders have spent the most time observing. In the case of Arlequim Technologies, the problem is one that cuts across sectors and income levels: the widening distance between what current software demands of hardware and what most people’s devices can actually deliver. Haroldo Jacobovicz founded the company in 2021 with a service designed to close that distance through cloud-based virtualization, improving the performance of existing equipment without requiring users to replace it.

The idea is applicable across a range of settings. For a business running ageing workstations, the cost of upgrading an entire hardware fleet can be prohibitive — particularly for smaller organisations where capital expenditure is closely managed. For a public institution bound by procurement regulations, replacing computing infrastructure involves lengthy approval processes that may take years to complete. For an individual consumer whose machine no longer meets the minimum specifications for the software they want to use, the default assumption is that new hardware is the only answer. Arlequim’s virtualization model challenges that assumption in each of these contexts, which is why the company’s three target markets — corporate, public sector, and retail — are as varied as they are.

The retail focus on gamers deserves specific attention. Brazil has developed one of the most active gaming communities in Latin America, driven by expanding internet access, a young and digitally engaged population, and government legislation introduced in 2024 that formally recognised the video game industry and introduced associated tax incentives. Gaming’s technical requirements are among the most demanding of any consumer software category — multiplayer environments in particular require low latency and consistent processing power, and the gap between what entry-level hardware provides and what current titles require is substantial. Arlequim’s service speaks directly to users caught in that gap.

What gives Haroldo Jacobovicz a particular vantage point on these markets is the range of sectors he has worked across. His career in technology began in the early 1990s and has taken in software development, hardware services, public sector IT contracts, and telecommunications infrastructure. The public sector work was formative in a specific way: building technology rental models for government agencies taught him how to structure services around the constraints that institutions actually face, rather than the conditions that make technology easiest to deploy. That discipline — designing for real-world limitations rather than ideal circumstances — is visible in Arlequim’s core proposition.

His telecommunications venture, Horizons Telecom, added another layer of perspective. Built from scratch in 2010, it became a reference point in Brazil’s corporate market over the following decade. The experience of growing a connectivity business reinforced an understanding of how infrastructure gaps translate into practical disadvantages for the communities and organisations that lack access to them.

Arlequim Technologies, as Haroldo Jacobovicz has described it, was born from a desire to extend the benefits of digital life to the greatest number of people at the most accessible cost. That stated purpose connects directly to the service the company provides — and to the career that preceded it.