São Paulo, June 20, 2024 – The iFood digital bank, the iFood Paid, launches its new brand and consolidates itself as the restaurant bank. The operation, which began as credit lines for partners, evolved into payments and digital accounts and today transacts R$70 billion GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) per year and has already reached the mark of R$1.5 billion in credit granted. The forecast is that iFood Pago will close its fiscal year (March 2025) with successful operations and revenue of R$1 billion.
iFood is not just an online delivery company and iFood Pago reinforces this positioning by revolutionizing the financial market in the food sector. “Our objective is to assist in financial management inside and outside the salon, supporting establishments so that they have the best results, sell more, reduce their operating costs, by providing credit and generating traffic for online and on-site operations”, explains Bruno Henriques, CEO of iFood Pago. The executive has been with the company since 2019 and was responsible for Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects and the company's accelerated growth over the years.
iFood Pago already has more than 140,000 active digital accounts for restaurants, which help restaurants understand and manage their finances, contract credit solutions to finance their growth and adhere to payment technology, such as the new card machine. The iFood digital account is being designed and developed to meet the restaurant owner's day-to-day needs. It is more than a simple account as its central objective is to organize and bring control of finances to the restaurant owner, being a genuine multichannel experience.
“Our mission is to be the food bank, focused on the ecosystem developed by iFood, which today receives 96 million orders per month, comprises more than 340 thousand restaurants, more than 30 thousand supermarkets and around 50 million customers. We are confident that we can deliver a specialized, unique and exceptional service within this universe, as is the case with credit for this sector”, says Henriques.
iFood uses transactional data from partner restaurants to model and understand the best line of credit for each establishment, with information that other market players do not have access to. Therefore, it can provide a specific and transparent solution through the analysis of information within its ecosystem, getting even closer to small and medium-sized retailers and solving an important issue for entrepreneurs in the area by facilitating access to credit. Our success as an ecosystem is to see the restaurant grow, regardless of its sales channel.
According to a 2024 Serasa Experian survey, 47% of Brazilian SMEs have not subscribed to credit products in the last two years, with half of these companies indicating that they plan to acquire this service and what prevents them are the barriers to the demands of traditional financial institutions (26% ).
iFood Paid Machine
The iFood Pago Maquinona is the only solution for receiving payments from restaurants that is integrated with iFood delivery and offers data intelligence using AI so that establishments can carry out campaigns to attract and retain customers who authorize participation, in addition of marketing actions aimed at improving its performance. In the coming months, around 5 thousand machines will hit the market and the expectation is to have around 50 thousand restaurants operating with Maquinona by March 2025.
“It is worth highlighting that we are not a traditional machine but a powerful and modern category of this device, which adds data and strategy for our partner. There is nothing like it on the market today”, explains Henriques. In initial tests, we already see restaurants increasing their sales by 7%. We believe that the potential is even greater, as restaurant owners will start to proactively take care of their relationships with their customers.
To improve its financial offering, iFood relies on Zoop, its payments partner, which is now also part of the iFood Pago business. The iFood Pago launch plan included the total acquisition of this specialist brand and leader in technology for onboard financial services in Brazil and which was already part of the portfolio of companies invested in by iFood since 2017.
The objective with this step is to offer even more agility and innovation in technological payment solutions, in addition to banking services for restaurant partners. Zoop, in addition to supporting iFood Pago, will continue to offer payment and Banking As a Service solutions for companies in all sectors.
In addition to the iFood Pago service portfolio, another solution that is under the brand's umbrella is iFood Benefícios, the multi-benefit card aimed at the corporate benefits and HR market. “iFood Benefits is modernizing the sector and, with the evolution of this market, it is growing exponentially in the acquisition of new lives. It currently has almost half a million users in its portfolio, employees of partner companies”, concludes Henriques.
About iFood Pago
iFood Pago is the restaurant bank that offers various financial products and services for restaurants, such as digital accounts, credit solutions and payment methods, such as the new payment card machine, which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. helps restaurants carry out marketing campaigns, attracting and retaining customers. iFood's digital bank aims to innovate and modernize the restaurant finance ecosystem in Brazil.
