Brazilian fintech company Maggi has raised $4 million in a seed round led by Lux Capital, marking the company's first investment in Brazil. The company has raised $5.1 million in total to develop an AI-powered financial assistant. Its current product allows users to send and receive money via WhatsApp.
For co-founder Luis Ramalho and Lux partner Brandon Reeves, Magie is a broader bet on Brazil's burgeoning fintech industry, buoyed by the huge success of Nubank, the Brazilian neobank that had a blockbuster IPO in 2021.
Reeves, who has spearheaded many of Lux's international investments, notably Sakanai, the firm's first investment in Japan, said that during a recent visit to Sao Paulo, he witnessed firsthand how quickly Brazilians are “early adopters of new financial products.”
He pointed to Pix, an instant payments platform introduced by the Brazilian Central Bank in 2020. According to Brazilian financial services association Avex, some 42 billion payments will have been made using Pix by 2023, more than the total amount of credit and debit card fees combined.
Pix paved the way for Magie. Last September, Ramalho, a native of Rio de Janeiro, realized Pix was a big opportunity. It connected most Brazilians into a common network, something Ramalho could tap into. Along with co-founder João Camargo, they designed Magie as an AI chatbot for WhatsApp where users can send and receive money. Magie has gained more than 12,000 users since its April launch, but the company doesn't yet make any revenue from those users. “Our goal is to build something that has a lot of retention first,” Ramalho said.
But Ramalho's ultimate goal is to make Magie a more full-fledged financial assistant and equalizer. He wants to sell premium subscriptions for users to help Magie make financial decisions for them, like which banks to take out and what loans to get. He also has competition from banks themselves: Morgan Stanley released its own AI-powered financial assistant in June.
But Ramalho argues that Maggi is a more equal tool, one that doesn't have a vested interest in any particular bank's services. “Banks have certain conflicts of interest,” he says. “They don't necessarily want you to see the best offer from every bank.”
He says it all stems from Maggie's namesake, Lizzie Magie, the designer who created Monopoly. Her version was less about one person taking all the land and more about everyone having land. “There were still winners,” he says, “but everyone was better off at the end of the game.”