BHub startup taps series A — BHub fouders (from left): Marcelio Leal, Vanessa Muglia, Jorge Vargas Neto, and Fernando Ricco. The startup offers back-office subscription plans for SMEs and startups. Photo: Courtesy

From pre-seed to Series A in two months: back-office as a service startup BHub taps BRL 115 million

The startup wants to take advantage of the capital injection led by monashees and Valor Capital Group to expand its subscription management model and reach new territories in Latin America

Tiago Alcantara

14.Dec.2021 07:00 BRT

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Frenetic sounds like a good term to describe the development pace of BHub. With only three months of operation, the startup closed a pre-seed round of BRL 23 million, in October. Almost two months later, the startup announces its BRL 115 million Series A round, with the participation of the two largest venture capital funds in Brazil: monashees and Valor Capital Group.

The round also features QED Investors, Picus Capital, and ClocktowerVC. But what makes the startup grow so fast and draw investors’ attention? As BHub co-founder and CEO, Jorge Vargas Neto, says the startup solves a latent pain among entrepreneurs: back-office administration.

“I think [the growth rate] is the result of solving a real pain. Before we started, we did interviews with 314 entrepreneurs, and when we created BHub, there was this very urgent pain. To our surprise, we are managing to grow very quickly and based on recommendations”, says Vargas Neto.

Another element that contributes to speed up the development of BHub’s solution is the fact that Vargas (former Rappi and Zen Finance) and its founding partners Marcelio Leal (former Amazon and Nubank), Vanessa Muglia (co-founder of Civi), and Fernando Ricco (formerly BTG and Adyen) are seasoned professionals in the innovation market.

The executive says that the experience its founding team is one of its great differentials of BHub as a startup: “we managed to bring to Brazil and Latin America a concept that is starting to take off abroad: subscription management (also called GPA). The great benefit of being experienced entrepreneurs is that we manage to avoid some mistakes. This has helped us to bring people who are culturally fit and, in also, as we have known each other for many years, we have a privileged network of contacts”.

BHub makes handling the “boring part” of the business easier

The capital injection will allow the company to continue expanding its subscription back-office management service to startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Brazil and beyond. Vargas says the investment will support BHub’s growth from more than a hundred customers to thousands of startups and SMEs across Brazil.

We came to fill a gap that exists in the startup and SME market. We invite entrepreneurs to rethink their business model, understanding that it is not necessary to spend a lot or waste time on any task that is not their core business.
JORGE VARGAS NETO, CEO OF BHUB.

The company’s solution combines software and human assistance to manage its clients’ accounting, financial, tax, HR and legal departments. Vargas Neto explains that the startup vision is to allow entrepreneurs to focus their efforts on what is essential while BHub deals with “boring work”.

Part of the money raised in the round will also be invested in marketing and team: the company’s expectation is to hire 100 people. Soon, the company will also take the solution to other countries, starting with Mexico, where it already serves around ten clients.

Plans for 2022 are also moving at an accelerated pace: BHub expects to reach 2,500 customers (currently there are 134), with revenues of reaching BRL 50 million.

“The results show that we are on the right path. Now, with this investment, we are going to strengthen our team and expand our solutions to thousands of clients in Brazil, soon in Mexico and other countries in Latin America”, comments Vargas Neto.