2023-12-18 23:30:25
Unico — the leader in digital identity in Brazil — hired the former CFO of Hapvida, Maurício Teixeira, bringing an executive with experience in several sectors of the traditional economy at a time when the startup is entering a new phase of growth.
Teixeira left Hapvida last week, raising speculation regarding his future. In conversations with analysts, he had already signaled that he was going to an unlisted company.
Teixeira told Brazil Journal that in the last year he received several proposals from companies, but that he was not interested in any of them because they all had a mandate of debt restructuring and cleaning up the house.
“At Unico, it’s very different. I will have a mandate for growth, product, and organizing the company’s financial governance,” he said.
Part of Teixeira’s work will be to help with the pricing and structuring of new products that Unico has recently created — and in which it assumes the operating risk. One of these products is IdPay, which validates retailers’ online payment transactions and ensures the transaction risk.
“In Brazil, 15% to 20% of online purchases are rejected by ecommerce because they think the purchase is a fraud. But in practice, 80% of these purchases are legitimate,” CEO and founder Diego Martins told Brazil Journal. “With IdPay we carry out biometric authentication of these purchases that the retailer would disapprove, and if we consider it to be safe we assume the risk of chargeback.”
The other product is IdUnico, which was launched four months ago. The product is used by banks in the process of onboarding of new customers. Instead of going through the normal bank approval process, Unico performs biometric authentication for new customers and also ensures the operation. If she makes an error during approval, she pays a pre-agreed compensation amount with the client, as if it were insurance.
“With this change in product positioning, the financial part and risk analysis and pricing became core in the business, which required a CFO with a lot of experience,” said Diego.
According to him, Unico was looking for a CFO who was not “high-tech, and with a head for growth.”
“We wanted someone ‘down to earth’ for this new level of the company. And Maurício has a combination of experience in many different traditional sectors and a great interest in learning more regarding the world of technology,” he said.
At Unico, the CFO position had been vacant for a year and a half, since the departure of Diogo Bassi, the former CFO of Petz who left Unico six months following joining to take up a position at Superlógica.
Since then, Unico has carried out more than 50 interviews.
The idea of hiring Mauricio came from General Atlantic, which has invested in Unico since 2021. Conversations with the executive began around four months ago.
Maurício said that one of the GA’s assessments was that the technology and product areas had already achieved a lot at Unico, but that finance had taken a backseat. “The company needs to make a catch up of financial processes so that they reach the same level as other areas,” said Maurício.
The executive will also be responsible for Unico’s M&A team, which has been relatively quiet recently. The startup’s last acquisition was in August 2022, “but with the arrival of Maurício we want to accelerate this agenda significantly,” said Diego.
According to him, Unico should announce a new M&A in the coming months.
Pedro Arbex
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