The Northeastern Day is celebrated on October 8th, in honor of the poet, composer, playwright, and musician Catulo da Paixão Cearense, who was born on this date in 1863, in São Luís, Maranhão. Catulo was known as the Poet of the Backlands. The date is a celebration of the cultural richness of the Northeast region, but it has also been important to highlight the success of the northeastern people in other areas, such as technology.
The history of Agilize, the first online accounting companies in Brazil, is proof that the Northeast is definitely on the route of successful technology companies.
The company was founded basically by students graduated from the computer science college of the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) who knew nothing about accounting but understood everything about technology: Marlon Freitas, Rafael Caribé, Rafael Viana, Adriano Fialho, Ernesto Amorim, and Alberto Vila Nova
Baptized as Agilize, it started as a startup in Salvador, Bahia. The beginning was not easy! First, they had to explain to customers that it was possible to have an online accounting service, and then they needed financial support. The company had the opportunity to participate in two acceleration processes – Google Launchpad Accelerator and Endeavor – until the dreamed investment came, and the business gained the speed it needed to achieve the initial purpose of helping entrepreneurs.
Today, there are more than 20 thousand companies in the client portfolio. Present in all states of the country in serving service and commerce entrepreneurs, Agilize reached a revenue mark of R$ 40 million in 2023. And more than 10 thousand companies have already been opened in Brazil with the support of the Fintech.
“Today we already have more than 300 employees dreaming along with us and making it happen. We end up helping the entrepreneur throughout the process, from building a business plan, to reducing tax burden, how they can sell more, attract customers, how to do marketing. We invest a lot in this entrepreneur education. And we still have huge market potential to increase these numbers”, says Marlon Freitas, founder and CMO of Agilize.
Regarding the future, the executive from Agilize emphasizes the importance of maintaining partnership with clients as one of the most evident characteristics of the services. “We are educators of the Brazilian entrepreneur. Our projects are focused on understanding their pains, so that they can succeed and have a partner at all times. We are dealing with dreams, expectations, and ambitions, generating more and more this connection,” explains the CMO.
