With the check, the intention was to start expanding the business to the United States. But the project has not yet gone ahead, although the company even has an office there.
The main challenge is to build a local team, amidst the dispute for talent. “Wages in the US are getting higher. We set up the office, we are already selling there, but the biggest challenge is having people”, recognizes co-founder and CEO, Goldwasser Neto – known as Gold. He even postponed his trip to Uncle Sam's land. "Now I'm moving there to set up the team."
While the US operation does not hitch, the startup in Brazil is going from strength to strength, and is ending up with 2.5x higher revenue compared to 2020 and expects, at least, to double recurring revenue in 2022. “Brazil did very well ”, defines the entrepreneur, citing the increase in 'ramped' salespeople – from four to 15.
“We enter January with a stronger and more robust team”, he says. With around 200 employees, the plan is to reach 300 by the end of 2022, with reinforcement especially in the team focused on expansion in Latin America.
To refresh the reader's memory, Accountfy is a platform in the SaaS model that automates financial statements (DRE, cash flow and balance sheet). In practice, the startup's solution solves the pain of the three main areas of the companies' finance department: controllership, FP&A (Financial Planning and Analysis) and treasury. This last module will be launched in the first half of next year, reveals the entrepreneur.
In recent months, the company has increased the platform, adding the balance sheet explanatory notes and launching a 'friendlier' version of the dashboard, as well as an application, for example.
"We are working on the 'cash management' module, which will bring a new audience, the treasurers."
Accountfy also reinforced the partnership with two (EY and PwC) of the so-called 'big four' – as the four largest auditing companies are known. They act both as customers and distributor partners of the startup's solution.
And speaking of new partnerships, the entrepreneur says that he is closing an agreement for a “big project, with a big company”, which should be announced in January. For reasons of contract, he cannot give details yet. But a spoiler: the initiative has the potential to bring to the startup base over 1,000 'middle' and 'large' customers in the first 12 months. “This project can take the company to another level”, recognizes Gold.
With 3.5 thousand CNPJs in the base – economic groups usually have several CNPJs –, Accountfy has around 350 paying customers. The portfolio includes companies of different sizes, from multinationals and large companies to medium-sized businesses. Órama, Burger King, Movile and Méliuz are some of the examples. In addition to Brazil, customers are in countries such as Uruguay, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.
Another plan for 2022 – more precisely, the second half – is the entry into financial products and services, also via partnerships, as Gold had already anticipated in his last interview with Finsiders. Still without going into details, the entrepreneur says that the idea will be to build something more 'taylor-made'. It gives some clues as to what can be developed.
“If the company has liabilities, does it not make sense to have a credit line? I already deliver this information accurately. Or, for example, exchanging a judicial deposit for surety bond.”
Ex-EY, Gold was CFO of investees at GP Investments, and set up his M&A boutique in 2016, called São Conrado Capital Partners, alongside João Mano, with a focus on helping technology companies raise capital. Based on this experience, the duo founded Accountfy a year later.
In the startup model, the main competitors are from outside. Among them are Hyperion (from Oracle), BPC (from SAP), NetSuite, Workiva and others. All with a strong presence in the North American market. "There, let's fight in the 'middle market'. We're not going to fight at ‘large,” says Gold.
With the check, the intention was to start expanding the business to the United States. But the project has not yet gone ahead, although the company even has an office there.
The main challenge is to build a local team, amidst the dispute for talent. “Wages in the US are getting higher. We set up the office, we are already selling there, but the biggest challenge is having people”, recognizes co-founder and CEO, Goldwasser Neto – known as Gold. He even postponed his trip to Uncle Sam's land. "Now I'm moving there to set up the team."
While the US operation does not hitch, the startup in Brazil is going from strength to strength, and is ending up with 2.5x higher revenue compared to 2020 and expects, at least, to double recurring revenue in 2022. “Brazil did very well ”, defines the entrepreneur, citing the increase in 'ramped' salespeople – from four to 15.
“We enter January with a stronger and more robust team”, he says. With around 200 employees, the plan is to reach 300 by the end of 2022, with reinforcement especially in the team focused on expansion in Latin America.
To refresh the reader's memory, Accountfy is a platform in the SaaS model that automates financial statements (DRE, cash flow and balance sheet). In practice, the startup's solution solves the pain of the three main areas of the companies' finance department: controllership, FP&A (Financial Planning and Analysis) and treasury. This last module will be launched in the first half of next year, reveals the entrepreneur.
In recent months, the company has increased the platform, adding the balance sheet explanatory notes and launching a 'friendlier' version of the dashboard, as well as an application, for example.
"We are working on the 'cash management' module, which will bring a new audience, the treasurers."
Accountfy also reinforced the partnership with two (EY and PwC) of the so-called 'big four' – as the four largest auditing companies are known. They act both as customers and distributor partners of the startup's solution.
And speaking of new partnerships, the entrepreneur says that he is closing an agreement for a “big project, with a big company”, which should be announced in January. For reasons of contract, he cannot give details yet. But a spoiler: the initiative has the potential to bring to the startup base over 1,000 'middle' and 'large' customers in the first 12 months. “This project can take the company to another level”, recognizes Gold.
With 3.5 thousand CNPJs in the base – economic groups usually have several CNPJs –, Accountfy has around 350 paying customers. The portfolio includes companies of different sizes, from multinationals and large companies to medium-sized businesses. Órama, Burger King, Movile and Méliuz are some of the examples. In addition to Brazil, customers are in countries such as Uruguay, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.
Another plan for 2022 – more precisely, the second half – is the entry into financial products and services, also via partnerships, as Gold had already anticipated in his last interview with Finsiders. Still without going into details, the entrepreneur says that the idea will be to build something more 'taylor-made'. It gives some clues as to what can be developed.
“If the company has liabilities, does it not make sense to have a credit line? I already deliver this information accurately. Or, for example, exchanging a judicial deposit for surety bond.”
Ex-EY, Gold was CFO of investees at GP Investments, and set up his M&A boutique in 2016, called São Conrado Capital Partners, alongside João Mano, with a focus on helping technology companies raise capital. Based on this experience, the duo founded Accountfy a year later.
In the startup model, the main competitors are from outside. Among them are Hyperion (from Oracle), BPC (from SAP), NetSuite, Workiva and others. All with a strong presence in the North American market. "There, let's fight in the 'middle market'. We're not going to fight at ‘large,” says Gold.