The most indebted country in Latin America, where 67% of the population has no financial reserves to deal with emergencies, according to Fiduc’s survey, Brazilian startups are starting to transform the consumer’s relationship with money. One of the initiatives that has been gaining prominence is SmartSave, a fintech accelerated by Start Growth that automates the creation of emergency reserves by rounding off values in daily transactions.
The proposal is simple, for each purchase made by credit card, a value previously set by the user is automatically invested in a kind of digital piggy bank. ‘We know that saving is difficult, especially in a country where more than half of the population deals with tight income. SmartSave solves this by eliminating the need for conscious effort to save,’ says Marilucia Silva Pertile, CEO, co-founder of Start Growth and startup mentor.
With more than a thousand people accessing the platform, the startup emerges as a practical response to a structural problem. Datafolha’s data reinforce the worrying scenario: seven out of ten Brazilians have no amount reserved for emergencies. In this context, automated solutions gain relevance by democratizing access to investment, without requiring technical knowledge or large initial amounts.
The methodology is based on the concept of digital microeconomics. “It is a way to make money work for the user without the need to radically change their habits,” explains Marilucia. The fintech has already raised over R$1 million in investments and is part of the Start Growth portfolio, which has been operating as a venture capital and accelerator for innovative businesses since 2014.
For the founder of Start Growth, the impact of solutions like this goes beyond the individual level. “Creating access to financial reserves is not just a matter of personal discipline, but of economic justice. The more Brazilians have autonomy to face unexpected events, the stronger the ecosystem of consumption, credit, and entrepreneurship will be,” she evaluates.
With the app already in operation, SmartSave provides integrations and features that allow the user to track, in real-time, the evolution of their savings and the possibilities for diversifying the saved amounts, as well as set up custom values to be saved automatically.
