Brazilian entrepreneurs gain financial assistant through WhatsApp with artificial intelligence

Brazil registered, in 2024, a historical record of opening small businesses, surpassing the mark of 4.15 million new registered companies, among individual microentrepreneurs (MEI), microenterprises (ME) and small businesses (EPP), according to a survey made by Sebrae based on data from the Federal Revenue. To assist financial management, these new entrepreneurs now have a free platform that uses Artificial Intelligence and WhatsApp to automate the payment of customers and suppliers. Recently launched, fintech Jota is a financial assistant that allows users to manage audio chat operations through daily messages, through WhatsApp.

In addition to helping small business managers, including informal workers, the developers' proposal is to also benefit individuals who have WhatsApp accounts to carry out everyday transactions. 

In practice, Jota enables instant payments (Pix) and tickets, through audio, images and text messages, to one or several contacts, through an automatic favorites list, as well as receiving or charging payments via QR Code PIX in a matter of seconds, without fees for the user. These features are performed only by talking and asking what they want about their business, and entrepreneurs can receive valuable insights, such as financial calculations, daily billing reports and contextualized recommendations based on individual needs. 

As Jota operates within WhatsApp, its tools ensure intuitive usability and eliminate the need for traditional banking applications. The free opening of Personal and Legal accounts takes less than 3 minutes and is also done via chat.

The platform was founded by entrepreneur Davi Holanda, who has previously led projects in both pillars of financial operations: in acquisition, as a former executive of PagSeguro, where he led more than 15 products and contributed to the IPO at NYSE; and in the banking sector, as founder and CEO of Bankly, developing a Banking as a Service (BaaS) that was acquired by Banco Votorantim in 2023.

Market opportunity

According to a survey conducted by CEAPE (Small Enterprises Support Center), 61% of Brazilian entrepreneurs in these profiles use notebooks to write down income and expenses of their businesses. Another 14.5% of respondents said they use spreadsheets for this purpose, while 9.1% said that “ everything head-HARM. 7.9% responded that they do not use any of the tools mentioned in the survey, and only 7% have support from an accounting office.

Given this scenario, and considering that millions of entrepreneurs and individuals do not have time to control their financial life in notebooks or spreadsheets or conditions to invest in expensive software and often do not receive the proper attention of traditional banking institutions, the revolutionary potential of Jota has aroused great interest in the market. 

“We see a clear opportunity to create a platform that simplifies financial management and operations for entrepreneurs, whether individuals or corporations, and we are committed to helping them save time and money by developing solutions for daily operations, financial automation and payment journeys that increase the profitability of”, shared Davi Netherlands, co-founder and CEO.

Fintech also announced the completion of its US$ 8.9 million Seed round, led by MAYA Capital, with participation from HOF Capital, BigBets, Alter Global, Bogari Capital, Norte Ventures and angel investors such as Bebeto Nogueira, founder of Segura and Scout of a16z, Fersen and Mateus Lambranho, Mauro D’, founder of 180 Seguros, Bernardo Lustosa, partner of ClearSale, Dennis Wang and Pedro Fiuza.

“With this new round of investment, we are committed to strengthening our technology, growth and marketing teams to build a brand recognized throughout Brazil, a product that truly benefits entrepreneurs and drives the expansion of the customer base.In addition, we will start an essential agenda of receivables and payments, meeting a critical need of entrepreneurs and we are just starting to”, reinforces the entrepreneur. 

According to Holland, the feedback has been extremely positive, with customers saving 10 hours of work per month by making hundreds of transfers in a practical and efficient way. One of them commented: 'Jota HAS changed my financial life, it's that kind of thing you didn't know you needed. As I am always in the rush, this makes my life a lot easier. I just need to forward a message on WhatsApp or send an audio, and Jota runs Pix in seconds. In a month, I saved more than R$ 500 in fees.

Monica Saggioro, co-founder of MAYA Capital, commented: “O Jota solves a critical challenge (financial mismanagement) in the SME market, which moves billions of reais. This represents a huge opportunity, and Jota is perfectly positioned to take advantage of it. The caliber, experience and vision of the team are simply inspiring and put the company on another level. Our mission to support the best technical talents building startups in search of unprecedented success in Latin America could not be better represented than by Jota”.

The vision of fintech is to simplify all aspects of financial management for Brazilian entrepreneurs who currently face a lot of complexity with the products and applications available in the market and it seems that they are starting on the right foot.