Brazilian Turn2C nabs BRL 8.5 million Seed round to explore consortium market

Platform uses artificial intelligence to sell "consórcios" in a more assertive way, reducing defaults and give-ups

Turn2C consortium startup — Turn2C co-founders Bruno Pinheiro, Thiago Ramos, and Tatiana Anderson. Photo: Courtesy

05.Jun.2022 19:36 BRT
UPDATED 06.Jun.2022 15:14 BRT

Brazilian Turn2C announced it has raised a BRL 8.5 million Seed round led by Honey Island and 4UM fund and followed by B3 and Urca Angels.

Founded in 2021 by Bruno Pinheiro, Thiago Ramos, and Tatiana Anderson, Turn2C has built a platform that, through artificial intelligence, and statistical models, helps sales partners find the best ‘consórcio’ (consortium) product for their customers, considering what they want to buy, when and how much they can pay.

Something very particular to Brazil, ‘consórcio’ is a closed pool of retail clients, hereafter “participants,” making installment payments over a fixed period to fund the purchase of a product or service.

According to the startup, with the solution, its commercial partners are able to sell with more agility and assertiveness.

“After years of experience in selling consortiums, I realized that the high level of dropouts in the sector is due to bad sales and not the product itself. I believe that the consortium can be a way for people to achieve their purchase objective with better cost-benefit than the classic financing channels”, said Pinheiro, founder and CEO of Turn2C.

At Turn2C’s platform, the sales partners find an updated database with consortium products from more than 15 companies in the country. The startup affirms that, by making the right match between the customer and the product, the solution ensures less default until the end of the consortium. “Our assertiveness rate in the simulations is over 95% and the dropout rate is below 3%,” said Ramos, Turn2C co-founder and head of product. Moreover, Turn2C offers assistance from the hiring of the consortium to the access to credit and purchase of the asset.

According to Léo Jianoti, from Honey Island by 4UM’s investment committee, Turn2C’s business model was precisely what caught the investors’ attention, due to the potential of the consortium market, which handled BRL 220 billion in 2021 and has been growing 27% per year.

“The consortium as we know it has a potential underestimated by the financial market, especially as a self-financing solution. Every market benefits from Turn2C’s Intelligent Consortium, from the non-specialist salespeople who can simulate and make assertive sales, as well as the final customers who can access self-financing with a better cost-benefit ratio than the financing available in the market”, explained Jianoti.

With only one year, Turn2C already has a base of 1,400 partners in 26 states; the startup does not disclose the volume traded through the platform or the number of customers. With the resources, the company plans to develop distribution channels, improve the solution, and expand the sales partner network. Expanding to other countries, such as Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Uruguay, is also on the radar.