Imagine that a large bank wants to sell more credit cards. Which customers should the bank offer to? Is the product attractive to the entire customer base? In which channel may the offer be made to maximize the sales rate?
Knowing the customer and the way to reach him is decisive for any business. In a world in which businesses are increasingly digital and oriented towards the user experience, “getting to know the customer” has more and more to do with technology, algorithms and advanced data analysis.
It is this exponential growth market that Fligoo, an artificial intelligence startup founded in Córdoba, Argentina, but headquartered in San Francisco, in Silicon Valley, wants to explore in Brazil as well. According to the Distrito Dataminer 2021 report, artificial intelligence is the focus of activity for 702 Brazilian startups, a segment that attracted $ 365 million in investments last year.
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Fligoo‘s ace in the hole is its proprietary technology that has already developed more than 4,000 algorithms for advanced data analysis from other companies. “Fligoo’s core business is an artificial intelligence framework. In other words: we provide tools for building algorithms,” explains Carlos Naupari, CEO at Fligoo Brazil. “Our work is oriented towards three purposes: to increase sales via personalized offers; retain the customer and optimize processes,” he adds.
Among Fligoo’s Brazilian customers are major brands such as Itaú Bank, B2W (the parent company of brands such as Americanas, Submarino and Shoptime), and MAG Seguros, in addition to two confidential customers in the banking sector. Global customers include Coca-Cola and Mastercard.
Customization is king
Fligoo‘s algorithms work with the database stored by companies to predict customer behavior and generate intelligence for companies.
Predictive analysis solutions enable companies to get to know their customers better and have inputs to plan more assertive actions and offers. The watchword is personalization, based on artificial intelligence, big data and machine learning.
With its arsenal of algorithms, Fligoo has three products in its portfolio: a solution that uses customer data to generate product recommendations through multiple channels; a solution that analyzes customer risk and recommends retention actions; and an end-to-end solution for implementing an internal data lake.
Brazil was the natural choice for expansion for Fligoo
Founded by Argentines Marcos Martínez, Lucas Olmedo and Juan Cruz Gárzon in 2013, Fligoo soon arrived in San Francisco, in Silicon Valley, to try its luck on the technological pole. Today, the startup is headquartered in the United States but maintains a base in Córdoba, its hometown. It is in Córdoba that Fligoo House is, the technology hub where the magic of the startup‘s algorithms takes place.
Fligoo arrived in Brazil just over a year ago, in January 2020, months before the COVID-19 pandemic sharply changed business dynamics and accelerated the digitization of thousands of services.
Before, Fligoo prospected other countries, such as Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom. In 2019, Naupari took over Fligoo’s international expansion and came to Brazil at least twelve times to study the national market. He was convinced that the country lacked solutions aimed at advanced data analysis. Brazil brought together great players and untapped innovation potential in artificial intelligence.
Brazil was the natural market for the first step of expansion. We saw that the country has many large players in three sectors that interest us, banking, retail and insurance. Also, Fligoo has a competitive advantage due to the know-how acquired in the North American market.
carlos naupari, ceo at fligoo brazil
Pandemic increased interest in data analysis
Fligoo does not reveal its revenue. Last September, it received a $ 7 million round led by American and Brazilian family offices. According to Naupari, in 2020 the startup managed to double its customers globally and increase sales by 75%.
“2020 was a spectacular year for Fligoo because the companies decided to double their bets on digital initiatives. The pandemic has accelerated this migration to digital, which has led to a growing and natural interest in data analysis,” he says.
The objective this year is to repeat the feat and double the customer base, usually companies with revenues above one billion.
