General Atlantic and SoftBank’s Latin America Fund led a US$108m Series B in Acesso Digital, a Brazilian digital identity and facial recognition company. e.Bricks Ventures led a R$40m round in Acesso Digital in January in the company’s first disclosed financing, representing one of e.Brick’s largest checks at the time. Acesso Digital acquired computer vision startup Meerkat in August, 2020. 

(Press Release) Acesso Digital, a Brazilian IDTech pioneer in ID protection solutions, today announced it has raised US$108 million (R$580 million) from General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, and the SoftBank Latin America Fund. The funding round represents the largest Series B investment received to date by a LatAm SaaS company, and follows the IDTech’s first equity raise of US$7.4 million in January 2020, led by e.Bricks Ventures.

With more than 400 clients – including several of the largest banks, retailers, and fintech companies in Brazil – Acesso Digital offers digital identity authentication solutions including facial recognition, remote hiring, and electronic signatures, and has recently expanded its offerings to other related areas, including healthcare. As digitalization has accelerated since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the volume of transactions analyzed by Acesso Digital has doubled and billing has increased 28 percent since March. The Company expects to use the funds raised in this round to build upon its recent growth and scale the business by increasing its client base, expanding its product and service offerings, and augmenting its team, as well as continuing to explore strategic acquisition and investment opportunities.

“The value of digitally-native, flexible solutions has only increased as companies continue to adapt to the digital era,” said Diego Martins, Acesso Digital’s Founder and CEO. “This funding will allow us to further expand our participation in this trend and refine our leadership position in key existing and new markets, including telemedicine, e-commerce, and telecommunications. We are grateful to be partnering with two of the largest global technology investors – General Atlantic and the SoftBank Latin America Fund – and look forward to working with our new strategic partners to further scale the business.”

Paulo Alencastro, Acesso Digital’s Managing Director, said “We are excited to continue scaling the business, including by increasing our client base and broadening our product and service offerings. We also look forward to further investing in our team and in strategic acquisitions similar to our recent acquisition of Meerkat, an image analysis startup.”

Martín Escobari, Co-President, Managing Director and Head of Latin America at General Atlantic, said, “Global consumers are increasingly discovering and using digital products, and in the current environment, we are seeing the long-term trend toward digitalization further accelerate. We believe Acesso Digital’s unique offerings strongly position the Company to continue to capitalize on digital transformation opportunities and capture growth. We are thrilled to be partnering with the talented team at Acesso Digital and look forward to bringing its digital ID solutions to more clients across Brazil.”

Paulo Passoni, Managing Partner at the SoftBank Latin America Fund, commented, “Since we launched the LatAm Fund in 2019, we have seen rapid growth in digital acceleration in the region, and Acesso Digital has demonstrated the ability to scale its innovative technologies on pace with competing countries such as China and the United States. SoftBank’s strategy remains focused on long-term investment opportunities that we believe will have a big impact on the world, and we are confident that Acesso Digital fits that mold as the Company builds innovative digital solutions for the future. We are excited to partner with the team and work together to be a part of the digital revolution.”

Pursuant to the terms of the investment, General Atlantic and the SoftBank Latin America Fund will each gain a seat on Acesso Digital’s board.

General Atlantic has been investing in the LatAm region since 2007 and has several Brazilian unicorns in its portfolio, including XP, Gympass and QuintoAndar. The SoftBank Latin America Fund has been present in the Brazilian market since its inception in 2019, with strategic investments in companies across many sectors, including Loggi, Banco Inter, Creditas, VTEX, Olist and Petlove.

About Acesso Digital

Acesso Digital was created to simplify relations between people and companies by digital identity. As the first Brazilian IDTech, was founded by Diego Martins, Rui Jordão e Paulo Alencastro, and was pioneer offering solutions of facial recognition, remote hiring and electronic signature. Based in São Paulo, Acesso Digital has as clients the largest banks, retailers and fintechs of Brazil.

About General Atlantic

General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for growth companies. Established in 1980, General Atlantic combines a collaborative global approach, sector specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great entrepreneurs and management teams to build exceptional businesses worldwide. General Atlantic has more than 150 investment professionals based in New York, Amsterdam, Beijing, Greenwich, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto, São Paulo, Shanghai, and Singapore. For more information on General Atlantic, please visit the website: www.generalatlantic.com.

About The Softbank Latin America Fund

The SoftBank Group invests in breakthrough technology to improve people’s quality of life around the world. The SoftBank Group is comprised of SoftBank Group Corp. (TOKYO: 9984), a holding company that includes telecommunications, internet services, AI, smart robotics, IoT and clean energy technology providers; Arm Limited, the world’s leading semiconductor IP company; and the SoftBank Vision Fund, which is investing up to $100 billion to help extraordinary entrepreneurs transform industries and shape new ones. To learn more, please visit https://global.softbank.