The Bahian startup Recicla Lead CRM secured financial backing through negotiations with Bravo3, an investment fund specialized in raising capital for emerging businesses. The investment amounts to approximately R$3 million to expand the commercial operations of automotive dealerships and resellers, increase sales, and generate additional profits for the stores.
The pilot project, implemented in over 60 stores and dealerships, showed a revenue growth of up to 30% for participating businesses. Following this success, the expansion began to over 3,500 car dealerships across all Brazilian states. Now, negotiations are underway to enter Mexico, Colombia, and Portugal.
The investment also plans for Recicla Lead CRM to allocate resources to other growing segments, such as the pet market—products and services for pets. Around 3,000 pet stores will adopt the tool, which will include the development of new features and integrations.
Recicla Lead CRM is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform with marketing automation and F&I (F&I stands for Financial and Insurance). Beyond recovering abandoned potential customers, it converts them into sales and exponentially increases store revenue.
Bravo3 is led by CEO Daniel Bento, former president of Decolar, who acted as an advisor introducing investor Luiz Sacramento, founder and ex-CEO of Pinpag, a payment solutions company, who decided to bet on Recicla Lead. ‘Immediately after being introduced to the project, I was fascinated by the potential of having a true hub of products and services for the automotive market, where I had previously worked with Pinpag years ago. The principle of using strategic partnerships, which add value to the product, as well as the quality and knowledge of the other investors, were key factors in my decision to join this successful team.’
Bento states: ‘I have extensive experience with startups, so we offered guidance and I joined. I have little knowledge of the automobile market, but we’re talking about a highly fragmented, less professionalized segment—despite car sellers being highly specialized in what they do. They lack technical tools to improve sales, making it an underserved market that moves a lot of money. However, the large volume of transactions allows people to operate their own way, often without much structure.’
According to Bento, ‘We want to help this very retail sector, which lacks technology and knowledge, to compete equally with major market players. That’s Recicla Lead’s biggest challenge—to enable small retailers to compete with large automotive sales chains. This structured process is what we believe they need—sellers don’t have to convert every lead, but they need a technology partner to help them face the competition, and they’ll convert far more than just relying on salesmanship.’
He adds, ‘Retailers need to know they can control operations better and serve their customers more efficiently, even if it’s a family-run business with the father, mother, and son working as salespeople. It’s about leveraging technology to solve their segment’s challenges.’
Daniel Bento has been in Germany for nine years, managing Bravo3’s businesses from there. He keeps an eye on the innovation market, identifying businesses with exponential growth potential and selecting startups for investment. A Wharton School expert in Business Strategy and Innovation, he previously worked at Braspag. Today, he holds stakes in a Swiss-based company called Transfero Group and another named Octuspay, based in Fort Lauderdale, USA, though most of his current ventures are in Brazil, including Starfusion, Onfly, ETS, Startgi, and Konduto.
With deep expertise in tourism and payments businesses, he assesses that the challenges these sectors face are similar in difficulty—they’re strategic. ‘My business is empowering entrepreneurs, helping them turn their ideas into successful ventures. Entrepreneurs must tackle the pain points they identify.’
Initially focused on the automotive sector, the solution—already delivering strong results in a dealership pilot—now aims to optimize sales processes and boost revenue for multi-brand resellers nationwide. The platform is even being tested in a pilot project at select Audi dealerships.
Leading Recicla Lead CRM is CEO Daniel Carvalho Cruz, who brings expertise from Ifood’s growth project, where he was instrumental in system implementation, along with other startups across 14 South and Central American countries. He emphasizes his passion for working with emerging brands: ‘We apply the same techniques to help these businesses expand. We work with small businesses just as vigorously as with larger ones.’
