“Entrepreneurs will save Brazil,” projects XP Group founder on the future of the country

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Along with Sergio Furio, Creditas’ CEO; and Marcos Boschetti, Nelogica’s CEO; the billionaire Guilherme Benchimol participated in the conversation “Will everything become a fintech?”, which discussed the changes in the Brazilian financial market and the positive consequences of this scenario for the country’s progress.

In his opinion, the increase in the number of fintechs in the past five years, which jumped from 100 businesses in 2015 to over 900 in 2021, is a positive sign that the conservative Brazilian market is updating. And it is exactly from this movement that an essential pillar for a positive economy emerges: competition.

“Some data show that, in the next ten years, we will have three times more entrepreneurs than we had in the last 20 years,” he comments. “With that, we have more competition, which generates deflation, resulting in lower interest rates. That’s the explosion we’re going to see.”

In the case of fintechs, the performance in the market, which is becoming increasingly recognized, makes traditional banks work twice as hard to offer the best possible service and maintain their customer base. “It is because of our performance that banks are starting to cut fees, for example,” says Benchimol, who watches this environment approvingly.

However, according to the billionaire, fintechs represent more than a good move in the financial sector. In a bold prediction, he says: “Those who don’t become fintechs will end. In a way, it is the startup structure that speaks to the new generation. “We work in an agile way, we empower people, we escape a hierarchical structure, and we always put the customer first,” he explains. In his vision, it is this culture that, in the long run, will win the game against the big banks.

“Brazil has always had instability, so our culture is conservatism. However, for those who want a less bureaucratic market, the answer is to become entrepreneurs,” he opines, pointing out that there is a sea of opportunities for those who want to start up in the country. “If I were an alien, I would put all my investment chips in Brazil and come here,” he says, adding with a joke: “Try to be an entrepreneur in California, where the competition is at a very high level.”

“Brazil is a country of infinite possibilities because here we need everything,” he concludes. For Benchimol, if this is a worrying statement in today’s world, it is also a sign of hope for the future.

In 2001, Guilherme Benchimol and Marcelo Maisonnave created XP Investimentos CCTVM S.A., in Porto Alegre, as a company of independent investment agents.

In 2005, XP Resource Management, a resource management company, was created. With the incorporation of Americainvest CCTVM Ltda. In 2007, XP Investimentos became a broker. Currently, the company has more than 580,000 active customers and more than US$200 billion under management. It operates in several countries, mainly in Brazil and the United States. It has over 3,200 investment advisors spread across 600 offices.

Source: Forbes