If the Colombian David Vélez saw in Brazil the opportunity to open a digital bank that would later cause a big headache in traditional financial institutions with the success of his purple card, other Latin American entrepreneurs also want to repeat the success of Nubank. In the country that has become a cozy cradle for fintechs.
This time, the one who tries his luck here is the Uruguayan Gabriel Roizner, founder of Mozper. Founded at the end of 2019 in Mexico, the startup, which has a partnership with Visa, offers debit cards for children from 6 years old and in which spending is controlled by parents through an app.
After almost a year and a half operating in the Mexican market – as the service only actually debuted in August 2020 – the startup finally lands in the Brazilian market this Thursday, January 27. Finally because this was already an old wish of Roizner.
In an interview with NeoFeed Brasil in 2020, the entrepreneur, who before fintech had already founded the startups Tizzka and KienVe, said that he intended to arrive in Brazil in the first half of 2021. With the pandemic, plans were postponed.
“Brazil was on the radar for being a huge market. It is the largest in Latin America”, says Roizner. According to the entrepreneur, the startup also welcomes an expansion to Colombia. There is no date for that, however.
The arrival here goes through some changes in the operation in relation to what was being practiced in Mexico. The main one is to adapt the business to Brazilian financial tools. Especially when it comes to the PIX.
Other changes are related to tests that went wrong in the Mexican market and should not be repeated in Brazil. One of them is in the design of the cards and packages that are sent by Loggi. Everything has been redesigned from scratch.
The experience in Mexico was also important for the company to establish its business model once and for all. Instead of charging for each transaction performed – such as a fee for sending money, another for receiving, another for issuing cards –, the company bundled it all into one package.
In the current business model, the startup earns money by charging subscriptions. The value starts from R$ 19 per month in the annual plan or R$ 25 with charges each month.
The amount includes the sending of personalized physical cards to up to four dependents and covers all transactions made, such as transfers by PIX, DOCs or TEDs and the account maintenance service.
Account holders will only be charged additionally if they withdraw from ATMs of the Banco 24Horas and Saque e Pague networks or need a duplicate of physical cards in case of loss or theft.
To win over customers, the startup offers a 30-day trial period. According to Roizner, in Mexico, the conversion rate from the trial to a paid subscription is “almost 100%”.
In practice, Mozper's business is the digitization of the famous allowance. This allows parents to have greater control over what their children do with the money they are given.
The application allows you to create goals to save money, prevent purchases from being made on certain sites, create categories in which part of the money should be spent, among other functions. “The card is a feature of the application. We are building an educational platform”, says Roizner.
In the future, the startup intends to expand the range of operations by adding income and investment options to the platform. There is no word on when this will be done. “For the future, we have an aggressive plan. But now I want to focus now, on tasks and tools to save money”, says the entrepreneur.
The tendency is for Mozper to raise more money in the market before increasing its line of operation. So far, the fintech has received only $5.1 million from private investors such as Y Combinator and Foundation Capital in pre-seed and seed rounds.
There is an expectation that a new round to raise capital will be made later this year, but there is no exact prediction of when this will happen or the value that the startup will seek.
Without revealing how many customers it has or data related to the operation's revenue or profit, Mozper only says that it has an average growth of 32% per month in Mexico and hopes to replicate the percentage in Brazil.
This must be done little by little. Even more so due to the size of the operation in the Brazilian market. For now, there are only six employees and six open positions. The expectation throughout the year is to expand the team that is based in an office in São Paulo.
Here, the company will face competition from different rivals. In the banking sector, digital banks such as Inter, C6 Bank and Next, from Bradesco, have already launched products aimed at the public under the age of 18 and with financial control tools defined by the account holder's parents or legal guardians.
“Most of the products offered here offer an account and a card for young people. We are not an institution of this type, but an educational platform where the focus is on health and financial education, on teaching the value of money”, says Roizner.
With a more similar operation is Z1, a fintech that aims to be the digital account of teenagers. In November last year, the company raised BRL 55 million in a Series A round led by Kaszek and which also included the participation of the funds MAYA Capital, Homebrew, Clocktower and Mantis.
With similar models, other foreign companies have already managed to conquer a more relevant space in the market. Abroad, startups such as the American Greenlight and the British GoHenry have already consolidated their platforms, at least before the market.
The first has already raised more than US$ 556 million in contributions, while the second is at an early stage, with capital injections totaling US$ 66.2 million.
If the Colombian David Vélez saw in Brazil the opportunity to open a digital bank that would later cause a big headache in traditional financial institutions with the success of his purple card, other Latin American entrepreneurs also want to repeat the success of Nubank. In the country that has become a cozy cradle for fintechs.
This time, the one who tries his luck here is the Uruguayan Gabriel Roizner, founder of Mozper. Founded at the end of 2019 in Mexico, the startup, which has a partnership with Visa, offers debit cards for children from 6 years old and in which spending is controlled by parents through an app.
After almost a year and a half operating in the Mexican market – as the service only actually debuted in August 2020 – the startup finally lands in the Brazilian market this Thursday, January 27. Finally because this was already an old wish of Roizner.
In an interview with NeoFeed Brasil in 2020, the entrepreneur, who before fintech had already founded the startups Tizzka and KienVe, said that he intended to arrive in Brazil in the first half of 2021. With the pandemic, plans were postponed.
“Brazil was on the radar for being a huge market. It is the largest in Latin America”, says Roizner. According to the entrepreneur, the startup also welcomes an expansion to Colombia. There is no date for that, however.
The arrival here goes through some changes in the operation in relation to what was being practiced in Mexico. The main one is to adapt the business to Brazilian financial tools. Especially when it comes to the PIX.
Other changes are related to tests that went wrong in the Mexican market and should not be repeated in Brazil. One of them is in the design of the cards and packages that are sent by Loggi. Everything has been redesigned from scratch.
The experience in Mexico was also important for the company to establish its business model once and for all. Instead of charging for each transaction performed – such as a fee for sending money, another for receiving, another for issuing cards –, the company bundled it all into one package.
In the current business model, the startup earns money by charging subscriptions. The value starts from R$ 19 per month in the annual plan or R$ 25 with charges each month.
The amount includes the sending of personalized physical cards to up to four dependents and covers all transactions made, such as transfers by PIX, DOCs or TEDs and the account maintenance service.
Account holders will only be charged additionally if they withdraw from ATMs of the Banco 24Horas and Saque e Pague networks or need a duplicate of physical cards in case of loss or theft.
To win over customers, the startup offers a 30-day trial period. According to Roizner, in Mexico, the conversion rate from the trial to a paid subscription is “almost 100%”.
In practice, Mozper's business is the digitization of the famous allowance. This allows parents to have greater control over what their children do with the money they are given.
The application allows you to create goals to save money, prevent purchases from being made on certain sites, create categories in which part of the money should be spent, among other functions. “The card is a feature of the application. We are building an educational platform”, says Roizner.
In the future, the startup intends to expand the range of operations by adding income and investment options to the platform. There is no word on when this will be done. “For the future, we have an aggressive plan. But now I want to focus now, on tasks and tools to save money”, says the entrepreneur.
The tendency is for Mozper to raise more money in the market before increasing its line of operation. So far, the fintech has received only $5.1 million from private investors such as Y Combinator and Foundation Capital in pre-seed and seed rounds.
There is an expectation that a new round to raise capital will be made later this year, but there is no exact prediction of when this will happen or the value that the startup will seek.
Without revealing how many customers it has or data related to the operation's revenue or profit, Mozper only says that it has an average growth of 32% per month in Mexico and hopes to replicate the percentage in Brazil.
This must be done little by little. Even more so due to the size of the operation in the Brazilian market. For now, there are only six employees and six open positions. The expectation throughout the year is to expand the team that is based in an office in São Paulo.
Here, the company will face competition from different rivals. In the banking sector, digital banks such as Inter, C6 Bank and Next, from Bradesco, have already launched products aimed at the public under the age of 18 and with financial control tools defined by the account holder's parents or legal guardians.
“Most of the products offered here offer an account and a card for young people. We are not an institution of this type, but an educational platform where the focus is on health and financial education, on teaching the value of money”, says Roizner.
With a more similar operation is Z1, a fintech that aims to be the digital account of teenagers. In November last year, the company raised BRL 55 million in a Series A round led by Kaszek and which also included the participation of the funds MAYA Capital, Homebrew, Clocktower and Mantis.
With similar models, other foreign companies have already managed to conquer a more relevant space in the market. Abroad, startups such as the American Greenlight and the British GoHenry have already consolidated their platforms, at least before the market.
The first has already raised more than US$ 556 million in contributions, while the second is at an early stage, with capital injections totaling US$ 66.2 million.