Brazilian digital accounting firm Contabilizei has attracted SoftBank again for a new round – and a check more in line with the megafund’s investment profile.
SoftBank’s Latin America Fund led the 320 million Brazilian reais ($60 million) round, just over a year after entering the startup’s cap table with an undisclosed amount of funding. According to Vitor Torres, founder and president at Contabilizei, the 2021 round was small, joined by existing investors to accelerate some of the company’s plans and SoftBank joined as a matter of opportunity. “Now it’s a real SoftBank ticket,” he points out jokingly.
In addition to the Japanese fund, other investors included Pruven Capital and Goldman Sachs (directly from its US headquarters, not through its investment arm in Latin America). Existing investors Kaszek, Point 72, Quona Capital, the World Bank (IFC) and Igah Ventures also joined the round.
The round comes as Contabilizei expands the range of services offered to micro and small companies, including checking accounts and healthcare management. In addition, the firm has launched stores to support customer service provision in Brazilian shopping malls. It plans to broaden the network of physical customer service points from 2 to 6 stores in the next six months.
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“When we started, we were very digital. And we began to notice a demand for face-to-face relationships”, says Torres. Interestingly, Contabilizei benefited from being a digital company amid the social distancing measures introduced during the pandemic. People didn’t want (or couldn’t) to go to various places like notaries to start a company. “Customer service is not a cost; it is an investment,” he reinforces.
Roadmap
Doubling in size every year, Contabilizei intends to keep that same pace of growth in 2022. With 900 people on the team, the plan is to reach 1,300 and 1,400 staff by the end of the year.
According to Torres, the company launched in 2013 is the largest accounting firm in Brazil, with more than 30,000 clients – the startup estimates that a reasonably-sized accountant has around 80 to 100 clients. But, although it seems significant, the company’s size is still tiny. “Even though we are the biggest, we don’t even have 1% of the market yet,” says Vitor. Brazil currently has 18 million active companies, 99% of which are micro and small, precisely Contabilizei’s target audience.
Going shopping
In addition to its existing customer base, Contabilizei wants to expand its offering further, and acquisitions are on the company’s radar. So the company created an area dedicated to analyzing opportunities, and the first moves in that sense should happen in a few months. “We are mapping several expansion theses that make sense in the customer’s journey,” says Torres. Nothing beyond what is expected for a SoftBank portfolio company.
