Brazil gets another promising unicorn with “unico” offering biometric solutions

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The IDtech company “unico” announced on Tuesday (3) that it had received R$625 (US$120) million in funding in a round led by General Atlantic and SoftBank funds, becoming the latest Brazilian unicorn, market jargon for startups valued at least 1 billion dollars.

The announcement, nearly 11 months after unico received another round of R$580 million, also led by General Atlantic and SoftBank, illustrates the rapidly expanding demand for biometrics for uses as diverse as opening accounts to remote classes, a movement accentuated by social isolation measures.

Created in 2007 and headquartered in São Paulo, unico, formerly known as Digital Access, has grown, driven by companies that have also taken off online. Currently, the company has about 800 client companies, including Magazine Luiza, Pernambucanas, C6Bank, Banco Original, and B2W.

As the demand for digital identification skyrocketed, unico also picked up the pace with acquisitions. In 2020, it bought the Rio Grande do Sul image analysis startup Meerkat. This year, it acquired Vianuvem and CredDefense, which specialize in biometrics for vehicle commerce. This also helped to triple its staff to around 700.

According to Diego Martins, founder and president of unico, the funds from the investment will be used for the company to expand the development of proprietary technology and acquisitions.

“The new investment will make our M&A (mergers and acquisitions) machine more consolidated,” Martins said in an interview with Reuters, adding that he is also setting up a group to detect possibilities for expansion abroad.

According to SoftBank Latin America Fund partner Paulo Passoni, a biometric identification service with a high degree of assertiveness like unico’s is a difficult business to build. “Unico’s ecosystem makes the company a hotbed of innovation inside and outside Brazil,” said Passoni.

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