After helping to develop Pix, Matera, a company founded by Unicamp alumni, aims to expand internationally with new acquisitions and hires
In 1987, when the term startup was beginning to become popular, five students from the Computer Science course at Unicamp created Software Design, a company responsible for creating systems for clubs and video stores. Today, 35 years later, the small company born in the corridors of Unicamp is called Matera, which develops products and solutions for financial services and is experiencing an increase in growth: andn 2021, the company recorded an expansion of around 30% and reached revenue of R$236 million.
The success can be explained both by the company's proximity to the University and by the life philosophy of its entrepreneurs, who keep the desire to shape the future alive. “Our DNA is to do things differently,” he says. Carlos Netto, CEO and co-founder of Matera. From the beginning, the company realized the importance of generating assets and intellectual property to continue standing out.
Technological innovation is the driver of Matera's business. In the 1990s, the team already mastered concepts and technologies that would promote the digital transformation experienced in a remarkable way in recent years. The need to make the business profitable made the company migrate its operations to the banking sector. Since then, the company has been present in the creation of the Brazilian Payment System (SBP) and, more recently, actively participated, together with the Central Bank, in the development of the Instant Payment System (SPI), which gave rise to Pix . Now, with the implementation of fednow, a North American instant payments system, turns its eyes to the United States. “We are very happy to have started operations in the United States. More than ever, we are prepared for this new and important step”, comments Netto.
International expansion and job creation
Matera is considered one of the best medium-sized companies to work in the technology area in Brazil. A title he has held for over a decade. This year, it added more than 850 employees in offices in Campinas, São Paulo, Maringá, Waterloo, in Canada, and San Francisco, in the United States, in addition to employees spread across other cities throughout Brazil
.The company already has 55 million accounts in more than 240 banks and fintechs and isinvolved in 1,6 billion Pix transactions made per year in the countryís. Since 2020, its minority partner in the business has been private equity Kinea, which invested R$100 million in the company. The contribution helped to complete the purchase of the digital credit platform Onidata, in the first half of 2022. The acquisition expands Matera's product portfolio to include among its customers companies that serve individuals, in operations such as vehicle financing, loans and payroll loans.
Matera is a signatorythat of the Global Compact of the United Nations (UN), through which it commits to act strategically to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN 2030 Agenda. “The pillars of ESG have been consolidated in Matera’s operations. This leads us to make our commitment to building a sustainable world increasingly public and transparent, to engaging our stakeholders and to join efforts in networks of partners who share the same values”, comments Matera’s administrative and corporate sustainability manager, Denise Castilho.
Unicamp Challenge
Looking for new developments, Matera supported the Unicamp Challenge 2022, a competition organized by the Inova Unicamp Innovation Agency to stimulate the creation of new businesses, based on the University's protected technologies, and was also a supporter of the 16th Unicamp Ventures Annual Meeting, in 2021, the main connection event between entrepreneurs in the Unicamp ecosystem with students and researchers who want to learn about the world of entrepreneurship.
“The Unicamp Challenge has everything to do with our DNA of innovation and also promotes the creation of new startups to explore the technologies developed at the University, a fantastic idea, which we have been keen to sponsor for many years. An initiative like this did not exist when we opened our company. If it existed, it would have helped us get it right faster. Given our gratitude for the quality education that Unicamp provided us, we understand the importance of supporting Inova Unicamp’s initiatives to promote the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Campinas and the region”, explains Carlos André Guimarães, executive director of Matera.
Unicamp ecosystem
This article was originally published on the Innovates Unicamp. It is part of the series of reports produced by Inova about the companies that make up Unicamp's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Find out what types of companies can join this ecosystem and how to get involved register on the Entrepreneurial Experience page.
