Brazilian holding of consumer experience solutions, Co.Aktion is entering the North American market. The first step in the United States is being taken through Aktie Now, the consultancy for implementing customer service technologies that Bruno Stuchi founded in 2016 and from which, later, three other business units emerged, either through their proprietary solutions or acquisitions. With projects already implemented in other countries, such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, in addition to the United States itself, the creation of the subsidiary there is a fundamental part of the holding’s global expansion.
Like other Latin American companies that made a move to the United States before exploring neighboring countries, Co.Aktion wants to test and consolidate its products in one of the most competitive markets. But there are more reasons for choosing the US as a destination. “When we started looking at Latin America, excluding Brazil, we saw a smaller and more complex market than the United States. So even a small part of the market in the US can be huge and extremely valuable for us. Another point is that we already had part of our revenue in dollars, and also many costs in dollars. So, from the financial point of view, it also makes sense to build a structure in the US,” explains Stuchi, who is CEO of Co.Aktion, in an interview with LABS.
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Today, Co.Aktion includes Droz (a platform for customizable chatbots and NPS management launched in 2017), Callwe (a platform that emerged in 2020 after the acquisition of Mypbx in the previous year and which offers 100% digital voice service and cloud), and PeopleXperience (a customer journey and persona building platform in which Co.Aktion bought stakes).
“All companies operate independently but complement each other within the customer experience [CX] ecosystem that we are building with Co.Aktion,” explains Stuchi, adding that Co.Aktion is eyeing other startups in the same segment in Latin America as a way not only to complement its portfolio but to accelerate the acquisition of clients and professionals.
Another clear “engine” for Co. Aktion’s expansion, in addition to M&A operations, is external partnerships with other large Saas CX platforms. “In the beginning, we only looked at customer service. But since last year, we’ve been looking at the entire customer journey and bringing in new partners. That’s why we acquired Help Sales at the end of the year [later merged into Aktie Now], which was already a Hubspot partner and brought this partnership to us. We also became partners with Monday.com, Intercom, Zendesk, not to mention partnerships here in Brazil with Playvox and Reclame Aqui,” says Stuchi.
The majority of Co. Aktion’s customers today are large companies in different sectors, such as Tramontina, Electrolux, Magalu, Centauro, etc. Currently, Co.Aktion has 160 employees – many of them spread across Brazil and other countries, as companies have adopted remote work as a standard – and has another 28 open positions.”
The idea is that a large part of our sales team is located in the United States, for reasons of language and culture, but that the most significant delivery is made by the team that we already have in-house,” says Felipe Capusso, Co.Aktion head of operations in the US, who is working from the West Coast. In addition, a newly hired sales executive is working from the East Coast. New operations and marketing positions should also be created in the new office in the following months.
Co.Aktion earned BRL 12 million in 2020 and BRL 25.6 million last year. “This year, we have the objective of reaching BRL 45 million in revenues,” reveals Stuchi.
