Meet Ioasys, the innovation catalyst at the firm behind the Havaianas flip flops

A catalyst for digital transformation: this is how Walter Galvão describes Ioasys, a company he co-founded in 2012 and sold to Alpargatas a year ago. The startup plays a central role in advancing the current strategy of the owner of brands such as the world-famous Havaianas flip flops and Rothy’s, with focus on enhancing the online consumer experience.

The 200 million Brazilian reais ($40 million) acquisition was intended to boost the global expansion of the company and its range of products, in addition to boosting online sales. The startup’s work with the clothing and footwear manufacturer was born from a study of brand values and perceptions, and was included the evolution of HavaLovers, a community of Havaianas fans, a model also present in other global markets.

Since the acquisition, Ioasys has contributed to the construction of several strategic projects focused on user experience and the development of a culture of innovation inside Alpargatas. In addition to its parent company, the startup continued to serve its existing customer base, which includes names such as Banco Inter, Localiza and Burger King, and kept prospecting new ones. According to Galvão, the startup has maintained the pace of revenue growth, which has doubled over the last year, and the team jumped from 250 to more than 400 staff during the period.

“From a startup led by two entrepreneurs [Galvão and co-founder Gilson Vilela] who built the company step by step, we became part of one of the great Brazilian groups. This gives us significant muscle for our growth”, said the entrepreneur, in an interview with Startups.

For Alpargatas, which earlier this month reported 908 million Brazilian reais ($183 million) in net revenue in its best performance for a first quarter, Ioasys is the enabler of an “exponential leap on the digital front”. According to the company, this evolution manifests both in terms of the local B2B ecosystem, as well as the consumer sales channel for Brazil and international markets.

Now Ioasys has the mission to lead the new stage of Alpargatas‘ digital strategy. According to Galvão, over the coming months the startup is going to support a more robust effort on that front, in areas such as open innovation and corporate venture building.

“We spent this last year focused on integrating operations, structuring groups and building the first key digital solutions to the business. Now, we are in a very special moment to start running these new programs here, both internally and with our partners, to gain additional speed in our digital transformation process”, he said.

Delivering digital solutions

When it comes to the advancements in Alpargatas‘ digital strategy over the last year, Ioasys has supported a series of improvements in the platfrom used by corporate customers, franchisees and the sales team. Enhanced with features such as artificial intelligence and full cloud availability, Alpargatas‘ B2B ecosystem has gained a new sales portal with a mobile and web interface, which is 50% faster than the previous version. In addition, a purchase recommendation engine was launched, whose objective is to increase the assertiveness of franchisees’ orders.

In its direct to consumer channel, Alpargatas‘ goal is to guarantee a high level of sales service through an omnichannel environment. Deliveries on that front in recent months include the evolution of the company’s WhatsApp chatbot, and the virtual flagship store in Brazil and the United States, where purchases take place in fewer clicks, with faster conversion and checkout, as well as branding and content efforts.

According to Galvão, upcoming deliveries should include the launch of Alpargatas‘ EMEA flagship, for markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “We are working towards a globalized digital experience. This is a super important move within our concept of digital transformation”, the executive said.

According to Galvão, the HavaLovers study focused on consumers in some European countries has just been concluded and should also contribute to directing the company’s goals. “Over the next few years, the digital transformation at Alpa and Havaianas will rely heavily on community-focused work”, he said.

The platform in which these digital experiences will take place – whether in the game world or in the metaverse, for instance – will depend a lot on the feedback from this community, said Galvão. “We can’t wait [to experiment]: the important thing is to do it quickly to understand what makes sense, and adapt based on customer opinion and perceptions.”

According to the executive, the pandemic accelerated the brand’s digital experience by at least ten years. “What we are experiencing now is a new moment, which brings incredible opportunities in this area, with new models and business formats that have become part of this context, both in Brazil and in our global operation”, said Galvão.

Promoting cultural transformation

Alongside building new digital solutions, Ioasys also focused on the planning front and “dived into the business”, seeking to drive Alpargatas‘ digital transformation faster. One of the main actions in that regard was the unification of the technology and design areas, which today have over 450 employees. According to Galvão, the process was done “very efficiently”.

“We also worked on building our first tribes focused on value chains and today we already have several tribes working together. This is where a whole transformation process comes in, in which the IT and digital area does not work as a supplier to the business areas, but works together with all departments”, he said.

“The Alpargatas team was already doing a really good job; we came to join forces and bring a new, light way of doing things quickly and focused, in addition to being obsessed with the user experience”, the founder said, adding the company has made significant advances in this regard.

Based on its experience with clients from different segments, the startup understands culture as one of the main pillars for the success of digital transformation. To accelerate this process, Ioasys is seeking to adopt a digital mindset among Alpargatas‘ leaders, through training with global experts, in an initiative led in partnership with the company’s People team.

“We are doing a very significant work in a century-old company, empolying an agile culture and innovation in all areas, at the executive and operational levels. This started very well this year and is something that will continue in the following years. We want to transform Alpa and make the company think within these new work formats”, said Walter.

Managing demands

When it comes to what Alpargatas has been doing to prevent the scenario often seen in acquisitions, where the traditional company ends up hampering – or even killing – the startup in the post-purchase process, Walter says the integration is succeeding for a number of reasons.

“We are the transformation agent inside Alpargatas, but this involves all the company’s stakeholders: our role is to act as a catalyst for this process. The fact that we have similar principles helps a lot”, said the entrepreneur, adding that the success of the marriage between the two companies is also due to a positive standpoint from all areas of the company’s new digital arm and a genuine desire to drive digital transformation.

“We had a lot of freedom to bring this culture that is so important for the company’s own transformation. It’s a mutual learning curve: as a startup we don’t own the truth, and we have a lot to learn from the group as well. We were welcomed with open arms and this first year testifies that”, he pointed out.

On the other hand, there are challenges to overcome in the process of digital advancement, such as knowing the inner workings of a business with a complex chain from production to sales and distribution in different countries, in order to understand where digital transformation can be helpful. In addition, there was the challenge of integrating the IT teams, management structure and suppliers that Alpargatas already had.

However, the entrepreneur noted Ioasys benefits from its experiences in similar processes in other companies. “When we arrived at Alpa, we already knew a little bit [about the company’s obstacles] in the digital transformation process. Unlike a product startup that may experience difficulties [after an acquisition] for us that wasn’t an issue, as we have already lived these experiences in other companies”, he said.

Despite its extensive agenda with Alpargatas, Galvão argued Ioasys has been successful in balancing the demands of other customers. “It wasn’t that difficult, since we were already organized into tribes, and the framework helped us maintain the pace of growth, and to reconcile the dynamics for other markets”. The startup has just delivered a social commerce project to L’Oreal, and has been working with Brazilian travel firm CVC on several post-pandemic digital transformation projects, focused on reigniting tourism.

As for the expectations for the upcoming year, Walter says he is excited with Ioasys’ evolution and especially with the deliveries planned for the customer experience-focused digital transformation at Alpargatas still in 2022. “We have completed a first year of very important deliveries. We have advanced a lot and based on this structure, we have a second year ahead in which we will accelerate many things”, he said.

(translation by Leandro Miguel Souza, editing by Angelica Mari)