Business

On the verge of reaching 1 million active users, financial assistant app Olivia expects to integrate with 40 financial institutions in 2021

Almost a year after its debut in Brazil, Olivia is betting on its open banking platform to leverage numbers in the country

Lucas Moraes, Olivia's app cofounder — Lucas Moraes, Olivia's cofounder. Photo: Olivia/Courtesy

Anna Lima

08.Dec.2020 22:56 BRT
UPDATED 22:59 BRT

Financial assistant app Olivia is about to complete one year of operation in Brazil – and one million monthly active users. Founded in the Silicon Valley by Brazilians Lucas Moraes and Cristiano Oliveira in 2016, the fintech, which also operates in Ireland, is prepping to expand a platform that is approaching a perfect timing in Brazil: open banking.

“2020 was a very important year for Olivia. Despite a challenging macroeconomic scenario due to the pandemic, we believe that we have done a good homework,” says the company to LABS.

“From January to December this year, we increased the company’s monthly revenue by 430%, officially launched Olivia in Brazil in January, and reached 380,000 downloads in 150 days.”

From the user’s side, Olivia’s app works by first asking permission to access financial transactions. Powered by AI, over time the financial assistant gets to know the user’s habits and begins to help them through personalized financial advice. Best ways of spending money and stretching salary are some of the tips provided by the fintech.

Gathering a series of milestones, Olivia has strategic partnerships with the neobank BV – whose shareholders are Banco do Brasil and Votorantim SA – the Brazilian broker XP and most recently, with Credicard, one of Brazil’s largest credit card platforms.

But in its open banking platform, the list of integrations go way beyond: Olivia has currently more than 20 integrated institutions, from large banks and brokers to meal vouchers. “Our effort here is to always bring the greatest benefit to our users so that they can connect and automate their entire financial life,” states the fintech.

For 2021, the plan is to double the number of integrations, which currently counts with customers from banks such as Itaú, Banco do Brasil, Caixa Econômica Federal, Nubank, Alelo, and Sodexo, as they share their financial transactions with the app.

“We are on track to reach 1 million monthly active users within the platform, double our annual revenue and expand our open banking platform, aiming to connect with 40 financial institutions.”

Open banking

“If we think of our nature as a company, we are a financial data intelligence firm, and what open banking brings, is precisely an easiness and a democratization in the access to this type of data in the Brazilian market.”

Giving customers of financial institutions the power over their registration and transaction data, open banking regulation promises to foster competition and access to cheaper and better services. In a process that is just around the corner, Brazil’s Central Bank released on Friday a list of 1,065 institutions that will have mandatory participation in open banking regulation, to be implemented in the country from 2021.

“Open banking will certainly allow banks and fintechs to find niche areas of expertise and develop exclusive products and services – which are often not financial,” points out the fintech.

“From the transactional data, you can help the customer to book a trip, buy a cheaper sneaker, recommend a more suitable streaming plan. It is about understanding life moments and helping the client in each phase.”