Christmas presents came early for Conta Simples. The startup has just received authorisation from the Central Bank (Bacen) to operate as a Direct Credit Company (SCD). In operation since mid-2019, the Brazilian company is one of the pioneers in the corporate card market for small and medium-sized businesses.
With the startup's management platform, customers can open an account, pay slips and monitor the use of funds by employees, setting budgets and limits according to the demands of professionals.
Conta Simples applied for registration almost two years ago. The licence allows the start-up to build credit products in-house, processes for which it used to depend on partner institutions.
The idea is to develop its own lines of credit, speeding up launches and reducing operating costs, such as integrations with other banking systems.
"We're going to increase the range of products for our clients and we want to raise new investment vehicles," says Rodrigo Tognini, one of the founders of the fintech alongside Ricardo Gottschalk and Fernando Santos.
The first home-made products should appear in the first quarter of 2024. At the forefront of the production line are features for credit cards, such as extended payment terms and instalment plans.
"Our clients work with a very tight cash flow and by extending the terms they are in a more comfortable situation," says Tognini.
Conta Simples' main clients are start-ups, marketing and advertising agencies and self-employed professionals.
There are more than 30,000 CNPJs on the base. These are companies with a wide range of turnover, from those that register R$500,000 to those that make more than R$100 million a year. On the list are names like Mottu, Kiwify and Qulture.Rocks.
The choice to innovate in cards first is no coincidence. Conta Simples launched on the market with a current account and evolved with a corporate card system.
This year, payments using cards will generate more than R$5 billion, an increase of 150% on the figures recorded in 2022.
An expansion fuelled by the issuing of new cards this year, 500,000 so far, and also by the increase in spending per customer.
By adding new layers of resources to the operation, Conta Simples intends to increase the representativeness of a business unit it considers promising.
The corporate card division accounts for less than a third of the total volume transacted. The main part comes from the current account and transactions with PIX and TED.
This year, the fintech is expected to process more than R$17 billion, twice as much as in 2022.
According to Tognini, the team had already been working on some solutions even before BC approval, an agenda that will be intensified in the coming months.
In order to speed up development, the startup must increase its team, which currently has more than 250 professionals.
The funds for the investments will come from cash generation and the contribution obtained in 2021, a Series A round worth 21.5 million dollars.
"We do controlled management and we still have another 70 per cent of what we receive. We're operating very close to breakeven, which gives us the comfort to increase investment," he says.
At the time, the startup's investors included:
Since it began operating, Conta Simples has received more than R$150 million in investments. Over the period, the startup has recorded an average annual growth rate of 240%.
Christmas presents came early for Conta Simples. The startup has just received authorisation from the Central Bank (Bacen) to operate as a Direct Credit Company (SCD). In operation since mid-2019, the Brazilian company is one of the pioneers in the corporate card market for small and medium-sized businesses.
With the startup's management platform, customers can open an account, pay slips and monitor the use of funds by employees, setting budgets and limits according to the demands of professionals.
Conta Simples applied for registration almost two years ago. The licence allows the start-up to build credit products in-house, processes for which it used to depend on partner institutions.
The idea is to develop its own lines of credit, speeding up launches and reducing operating costs, such as integrations with other banking systems.
"We're going to increase the range of products for our clients and we want to raise new investment vehicles," says Rodrigo Tognini, one of the founders of the fintech alongside Ricardo Gottschalk and Fernando Santos.
The first home-made products should appear in the first quarter of 2024. At the forefront of the production line are features for credit cards, such as extended payment terms and instalment plans.
"Our clients work with a very tight cash flow and by extending the terms they are in a more comfortable situation," says Tognini.
Conta Simples' main clients are start-ups, marketing and advertising agencies and self-employed professionals.
There are more than 30,000 CNPJs on the base. These are companies with a wide range of turnover, from those that register R$500,000 to those that make more than R$100 million a year. On the list are names like Mottu, Kiwify and Qulture.Rocks.
The choice to innovate in cards first is no coincidence. Conta Simples launched on the market with a current account and evolved with a corporate card system.
This year, payments using cards will generate more than R$5 billion, an increase of 150% on the figures recorded in 2022.
An expansion fuelled by the issuing of new cards this year, 500,000 so far, and also by the increase in spending per customer.
By adding new layers of resources to the operation, Conta Simples intends to increase the representativeness of a business unit it considers promising.
The corporate card division accounts for less than a third of the total volume transacted. The main part comes from the current account and transactions with PIX and TED.
This year, the fintech is expected to process more than R$17 billion, twice as much as in 2022.
According to Tognini, the team had already been working on some solutions even before BC approval, an agenda that will be intensified in the coming months.
In order to speed up development, the startup must increase its team, which currently has more than 250 professionals.
The funds for the investments will come from cash generation and the contribution obtained in 2021, a Series A round worth 21.5 million dollars.
"We do controlled management and we still have another 70 per cent of what we receive. We're operating very close to breakeven, which gives us the comfort to increase investment," he says.
At the time, the startup's investors included:
Since it began operating, Conta Simples has received more than R$150 million in investments. Over the period, the startup has recorded an average annual growth rate of 240%.