Performa Investimentos made an undisclosed investment in Home Agent, a Brazilian work-from-home contact center, with participation from Gavea Angels. This is Performa’s first investment from Fund 3, made using a warehousing vehicle that Capria provides for its Network Fund Managers. Performa joined the Capria Network in 2017.
(Press Release) 20th February 2019, São Paulo — With the investment in Home Agent, Performa Investimentos, a seasoned Brazilian venture capital firm, starts to deploy its third fund, which aims at supporting promising middle market companies to address the main social and environmental gaps in Brazil.
Performa is a member of the Capria Network of impact fund managers in Emerging Markets, a global network of managers who deeply collaborate to achieve superior financial returns with scaled impact.
The deal with Home Agent was made possible by Capria’s innovative warehousing program, available exclusively to Capria Network fund manager partners.
Alongside Performa and Capria, this round of financing also counts with Gavea Angels, the most traditional angel investment group in Brazil. Through this convertible notes funding, Home Agent intends to invest in fast-tracking growth for the upcoming years.
Home Agent, the first and only work at home contact center in Brazil, has developed a model that gathers higher quality customer service with a positive social impact, by employing professionals that are not usually available to the traditional contact center industry, such as stay-at-home mothers, retirees, more experienced and specialized professionals.
Founded in 2011, Home Agent has pioneered the Customer Relationship industry transformation in Brazil by adapting the WAHA (Work at Home Agents) model to the complex local regulatory conditions. The company currently employs more than a hundred agents, formed by 93% women, average age of 35 years and 60% with college degree.
Home Agent has female inclusion in the workplace as its main driver, giving women access to employment opportunities and the chance help increase family income, enabling them for more empowerment and self-esteem. In addition, the company also generates an important quality of life and significant mobility impact in urban transportation.
On average an employee saves 4hs a day on commute time, what translates into 60 extra days of life per year. During the last 2 years alone, Home Agent has returned more than 12,500 days of life in their agents lives, avoided more than 270,000 commute trips and saved 140 tons of carbon emissions. Some other positive impacts of this model are increase in personal safety, wealth distribution in neighborhoods, improved health, less stress and healthier meals.
According to Fabio Boucinhas, Home Agent’s CEO “Brazil is now living a good and positive business environment, result from a significant boost in confidence on the economy, so the timing is perfect! With this financing we plan to implement initiatives that will help us grow much faster, expecting to duplicate our size on a yearly basis for the next 3 years”. In addition, the fact that this is an impact investment is very important for the company
“since the traditional Customer Service sector in Brazil is known for providing unfavorable work conditions, Home Agent on the opposite direction generates positive impact naturally by its business model without any additional effort. Having Capria and Gavea Angels alongside on this journey, is a very important validation of our impact proposition” – Boucinhas complements.
According to Patrick Cannel, partner at Performa Investimentos “Home Agent offers an unique combination of positive social impact with high growth and profits, led by a powerful and cohesive entrepreneurial team. We are glad to be a part in helping the company unlock its full-scale potential in the coming growth cycle”.