Transfeera, a fintech that provides payment infrastructure for companies, has just received approval from the Central Bank (BC) to operate as a payment institution (PI) in the mode of electronic currency issuer - which allows it to manage prepaid accounts. With the authorisation, the company will be able to integrate directly into the Central Bank's systems, such as the Brazilian Payments System (SPB) and the Reserve Transfer System (STR).
The licence, expected since 2020, is a fundamental chapter in the history of Transfeera, founded in 2017 in Joinville (SC). In practice, it allows the fintech to make decisions with more autonomy and agility, in addition to creating opportunities to explore new solutions and, consequently, new lines of revenue.
"Working within the rules of the game will help us improve the margin and financial performance of the business, in addition to putting us on par with competitors that are already regulated," says Fernando Nunes, CEO and co-founder of Transfeera, in an exclusive interview with Finsiders. "Right now, our engineering and product teams are focused on 'connecting the wires' directly with the Central Bank, integrating with the SPB and STR."
According to the CEO, the fintech is already planning to become a direct participant in Pix - it currently acts as an indirect participant in the Instant Payment System (IPS). At the same time, the idea is to seek its own licence to act as an initiator of payment transactions (ITP) in the Open Finance arena. "I really believe in the future of the payment initiator and in the evolutionary agenda of Pix, with Pix Automatic and Pix Parceled," says the founder.
He mentions that, following the rapid uptake of BC's instant payment system by individuals, there is a growing movement for businesses to adopt Pix. This includes B2B transactions, as well as individuals paying businesses and vice versa.
"Pix has established itself, and this year we have seen a strong acceleration in the B2B universe, but also B2P and P2B. Being regulated is going to be important to take advantage of this wave of growth," says the CEO.
The entrepreneur also mentions the possibility of working with foreign exchange, an activity that IPs can do today.
"Last quarter we launched an international remittance service in partnership with some foreign exchange banks. With IP, it opens up the opportunity to explore this directly," says Fernando.
In recent months, Transfeera has also launched "Bolepix", which embeds a QR code on tickets to pay with Pix. Another recent launch has been what the fintech calls an anti-fraud dashboard. "It provides an x-ray of the companies our customers deal with when it comes to payments. With Resolution 6, we are gaining more robustness in this solution."
In 2022, Transfeera had revenues of R$19m and handled R$12.8bn. In the six years it has been operating, the volume of transactions has exceeded R$24 billion. According to the CEO, the fintech had a turnover of R$11 million in the first half of this year and transacted R$9 billion in the period. The fintech currently has a portfolio of more than 450 clients. Among them are names such as iFood, Vakinha, Aiqfome, Pay4Fun, among others.
According to Fernando, 2023 looks to be a "positive but challenging" year. For next year, the entrepreneur says the company will seek "aggressive growth". To this end, Transfeera hopes to raise a Series A round. In its latest fundraising, in January 2023, the company received R$7 million in a contribution led by Honey Island by 4UM - a fund targeting fintechs created by Honey Island Capital and 4UM Investimentos.
The fintech generates cash and broke even in the second half of last year, recalls the CEO. "We have always done a lot with little. So, in 2024, the idea is to strengthen the growth path, taking one step at a time, with a big dream and our feet on the ground."
Competition is increasingly intense among payment infrastructure and financial services providers. In this saturated scenario, Transfeera's CEO sees room for growth with simpler and easier-to-integrate solutions.
"We were born with a super easy-to-use interface, with a set of robust APIs and we are working on more functionalities," he says.
The trend is for the market to become even more fierce, and what will differentiate one company from another is value creation, Fernando says. "For example, how to use artificial intelligence to make life easier for customers. There is a lot of potential there. We are looking at it.
Transfeera, a fintech that provides payment infrastructure for companies, has just received approval from the Central Bank (BC) to operate as a payment institution (PI) in the mode of electronic currency issuer - which allows it to manage prepaid accounts. With the authorisation, the company will be able to integrate directly into the Central Bank's systems, such as the Brazilian Payments System (SPB) and the Reserve Transfer System (STR).
The licence, expected since 2020, is a fundamental chapter in the history of Transfeera, founded in 2017 in Joinville (SC). In practice, it allows the fintech to make decisions with more autonomy and agility, in addition to creating opportunities to explore new solutions and, consequently, new lines of revenue.
"Working within the rules of the game will help us improve the margin and financial performance of the business, in addition to putting us on par with competitors that are already regulated," says Fernando Nunes, CEO and co-founder of Transfeera, in an exclusive interview with Finsiders. "Right now, our engineering and product teams are focused on 'connecting the wires' directly with the Central Bank, integrating with the SPB and STR."
According to the CEO, the fintech is already planning to become a direct participant in Pix - it currently acts as an indirect participant in the Instant Payment System (IPS). At the same time, the idea is to seek its own licence to act as an initiator of payment transactions (ITP) in the Open Finance arena. "I really believe in the future of the payment initiator and in the evolutionary agenda of Pix, with Pix Automatic and Pix Parceled," says the founder.
He mentions that, following the rapid uptake of BC's instant payment system by individuals, there is a growing movement for businesses to adopt Pix. This includes B2B transactions, as well as individuals paying businesses and vice versa.
"Pix has established itself, and this year we have seen a strong acceleration in the B2B universe, but also B2P and P2B. Being regulated is going to be important to take advantage of this wave of growth," says the CEO.
The entrepreneur also mentions the possibility of working with foreign exchange, an activity that IPs can do today.
"Last quarter we launched an international remittance service in partnership with some foreign exchange banks. With IP, it opens up the opportunity to explore this directly," says Fernando.
In recent months, Transfeera has also launched "Bolepix", which embeds a QR code on tickets to pay with Pix. Another recent launch has been what the fintech calls an anti-fraud dashboard. "It provides an x-ray of the companies our customers deal with when it comes to payments. With Resolution 6, we are gaining more robustness in this solution."
In 2022, Transfeera had revenues of R$19m and handled R$12.8bn. In the six years it has been operating, the volume of transactions has exceeded R$24 billion. According to the CEO, the fintech had a turnover of R$11 million in the first half of this year and transacted R$9 billion in the period. The fintech currently has a portfolio of more than 450 clients. Among them are names such as iFood, Vakinha, Aiqfome, Pay4Fun, among others.
According to Fernando, 2023 looks to be a "positive but challenging" year. For next year, the entrepreneur says the company will seek "aggressive growth". To this end, Transfeera hopes to raise a Series A round. In its latest fundraising, in January 2023, the company received R$7 million in a contribution led by Honey Island by 4UM - a fund targeting fintechs created by Honey Island Capital and 4UM Investimentos.
The fintech generates cash and broke even in the second half of last year, recalls the CEO. "We have always done a lot with little. So, in 2024, the idea is to strengthen the growth path, taking one step at a time, with a big dream and our feet on the ground."
Competition is increasingly intense among payment infrastructure and financial services providers. In this saturated scenario, Transfeera's CEO sees room for growth with simpler and easier-to-integrate solutions.
"We were born with a super easy-to-use interface, with a set of robust APIs and we are working on more functionalities," he says.
The trend is for the market to become even more fierce, and what will differentiate one company from another is value creation, Fernando says. "For example, how to use artificial intelligence to make life easier for customers. There is a lot of potential there. We are looking at it.