Asaas — which operates a PJ account for SMEs with automations and management tools — has just raised R$ 820 million in a round led by BOND, the fund manager from São Francisco founded by Mary Meeker, the veteran technology analyst who had a career at Morgan Stanley before moving into venture capital.
The fundraising also had the participation of Softbank and 23S Capital, the private equity manager that is a joint venture between Temasek and Grupo Votorantim.
For BOND, this is its second investment in Brazil, after investing in CRMBonus in May.
BOND was one of the first to invest in companies like Uber, Meta, Airbnb, Spotify, and Stripe. In Latin America, it had already invested in dLocal from Uruguay and Kavak from Mexico.
Founder Piero Contezini told Brazil Journal that the startup from Joinville started the fundraising process in April and did a 23-day roadshow in the United States. “We talked to 30 funds and at the end of June we received some proposals,” he said. “We chose BOND because we believe they will be able to help us define our business category.”
Piero said that BOND has a lot of expertise in this, as it helped create the ride-sharing category for Uber and the home-sharing category for Airbnb.
In the case of Asaas, the idea is to do what Stone tried (unsuccessfully) to do with Linx – that is, to create a solution that combines financial services with management software, allowing companies to find everything they need to run their business in one place.
The startup is calling this solution ‘an operating system for businesses’.
“In the world, there are companies doing this vertically, like Toast, which created a kind of operating system for restaurants that goes from POS to vegetable and fruit delivery,” said the co-founder. “But they don’t have the financial services part, they only offer third-party services.”
Asaas wants to do the same thing, with the difference of being a financial institution and doing it horizontally (for all sectors and not just one like Toast).
The startup did not reveal the valuation of today’s round, but Piero said that the dilution was the lowest of the three rounds, and that Asaas is close to becoming a unicorn. “We are already starting to see the little horns,” he said, laughing.
Asaas has 180,000 active customers and is expected to generate R$ 400 million in revenue this year. The goal is to reach R$ 1 billion in top line in 2026 and R$ 2 billion the following year.
The plan is to use one-third of the resources to strengthen its Basel index, which will greatly accelerate business growth; another third for development, hiring software engineers; and the remainder for M&A.
The company has made three acquisitions in recent years, all with the same product profile: adding new products to its portfolio. The most recent was the acquisition of NexInvoice, which has an automation software for ‘accounts payable’.
“In the next M&As our idea is to continue with this product profile,” said Piero. “In SMEs, it is very difficult to make customer base acquisitions, because most of the time the customer cancels their accounts during this transition.”
Asaas was born within a software house that Piero had with his brother, Diego. At the time, they created software that automated billing for companies — sending emails to the end customer, text messages, and voice bot calls.
When they sold the business in 2014, the Contezini’s spun off that software, giving rise to Asaas.
Since then, they started adding new services to the platform, such as digital accounts, prepaid cards, receivables anticipation, and business management features. Asaas does not charge for the software: its revenue comes from a commission of around 1% on the volume transacted by customers.
Today, 50% of the revenue still comes from this initial product, which helps companies with the so-called ‘cash in’ — receiving money from the customer. Another significant part comes from the ‘cash out’ product, which helps, for example, to schedule payments for companies and send receipts automatically.
In the ERP part, Asaas offers cash flow management solutions, commercial proposal issuance, and work order.
There is also the credit layer, where the startup is focusing on receivables anticipation, helping with companies’ working capital.
According to Piero, the ‘cash in’ and ‘cash out’ parts are already well developed, and the focus going forward will be to improve the management and credit parts.
Today’s round is expected to be the last before an IPO for Asaas. The co-founder said the company plans to access the market in 2028, probably with a public offering in the United States. Until then, he said the round’s resources are more than enough for the company’s expansion plan, which has been generating cash for years.
“Our idea is to continue focusing only on Brazil until the IPO, because there is still a huge market for us to conquer here. After going public and having more liquidity, our idea is to revisit the issue of internationalization.”
Source
Arwen Volkov, A graduate of the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland with a degree in International Finance, Arwen specializes in sustainable finance and green investments. She began her career at an investment bank in London, where she developed financing models for environmentally friendly projects. Known for her analytical and strategic thinking skills, Arwen is a sought-after financial consultant. In her spare time, she mentors fintech startups, contributing to their growth strategies. She is also a nature enthusiast and an amateur photographer.
