With instant payments focus, Brazilian fintech Transfeera eyes Series A round

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Brazilian fintech Transfeera has found its main growth engine in Pix, an instant payment system introduced last year by the country’s Central Bank. After adopting the model, the startup focused on payments management and automation doubled its revenue in 2021. It has also reported higher growth rates in Q1 than in the same period last year.

The company aims to once again double its revenue by the end of 2022. And, according to plans shared exclusively with Startups, the firm seems to be on its way to achieving that goal.

Between January and March, the company has generated over $600,000 in revenue, up 82% in relation to the same period in 2021. The company had generated $1,9 million in revenue for the entire year in 2021.

The company exceeded $340 million in terms of processed transactions during the quarter, up 250% compared to the same period last year. Operations carried out through the platform saw an increase of 144%.

According to Fernando Nunes, Transfeera’s cofounder and CMO, the company achieved unprecedented milestones in the first months of 2022. In March, it reached the mark of 1 billion Brazilian reais ($200 million) ​​transacted on its platform. To grow further, the company is already planning its next steps – which may include a Series A round.

Instant payments

Nunes says Transfeera‘s shift from being a platform entirely based on Pix to solving corporate problems for customers was a game-changer.

The fintech founded in 2017 by Nunes, Guilherme Verdasca and Rafael Negherbon adapted its mission to the technology provided by the Central Bank.

The fintech’s goal is to remove the fees involved in money transfers as much as possible – so much so that on the company’s t-shirt, the “Fee” bit (from “Transfeera”) is crossed out.

“Our focus is to provide speed, economy, and simplicity so that companies can pay or receive. With Pix, we found a way to do this with efficiency and greater availability. Today, we work 100% based on [instant payments], we are ‘all in’,” says Nunes, in an interview with Startups, referring to the advantages of the format in relation to traditional transfer models.

By focusing on Pix, the company went from 192 customers to 386 in 2021, including Brazilian food delivery platform iFood, crowdfunding site Vakinha, secondhand marketplace Enjoei, as well as credit information firm Serasa Experian and Santander.

But, as Nunes points out, the company’s technology uses go beyond businesses seeking a payment gateway via Pix. Some customers rely on the fintech for their payroll operations, for example.

“We invested a lot in delivering a secure and reliable platform, and we have even created our solution for validating bank data and reducing errors. We are bringing resources from the banking universe to Pix’s simple and fast model,” explains the executive.

What’s next

In addition to the plan to accelerate the adoption of Pix as a payment solution with new customers, Transfeera is eyeing future changes that could impact the fintech market. 

Open Banking, a system in which users can have their banking information on different platforms without having to be tied to the app or account of a single institution, is one of them. “Open Banking is still going through a more conceptual phase, with few practical applications, but we are observing and studying the possibilities,” says the CMO.

The company is also about to receive the Central Bank’s approval to officially become a financial institution. This will enable Transfeera to have its code hosted by the Central Bank, thus enabling it to operate Pix directly, without the need for a partner institution to intermediate the transactions.

“For our customers, this may not change much as our payment technology remains the same. However, [the Central Bank’s license] will bring more control, security, and transparency to our platform across all its stages, without depending on third parties”, Nunes says.

Whether to grow with its current services or develop new solutions, the company is planning its Series A round. According to Nunes, the partners have discussed the matter with potential investors, but have not set a date to close the deal. In 2020, the fintech raised a $600,000 round led by Goodz Capital, backed by Bossanova, Honey Island, and Curitiba Angels.

Regarding short and medium-term plans for Transfeera, Nunes has the answer at the tip of his tongue. “Pix is ​​very popular in peer-to-peer, but in B2B, which is our focus, there is still great potential to be explored, especially in verticals such as physical and online retail. Our goal is to be better positioned in the market” he concludes.

(translation by Gabriela Del Carmen, editing by Angelica Mari)