Read this Thursday’s edition of the FolhaMercado newsletter (29) – 06/29/2023 – Market

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Visa buys Brazilian fintech for $1 billion

Visa announced this Wednesday the purchase of the Brazilian startup Pismo, a cloud platform for banking and payments services, for $1 billion (BRL 4.85 billion) in cash.

The amount is close to what was spent on the purchase of 99 by the Chinese Didi Chuxing, in 2018, equaling in absolute values ​​the largest acquisition of a Brazilian startup, according to Sling Hub, a data platform on startups in Brazil and Latin America.

• Didi did not disclose the amount paid for the 99, valued at the time at around US$ 1 billion (US$ 1.2 billion, corrected for inflation), as shown by the Sheet.

for visa, the acquisition expands its client services portfolio, mainly with a focus on Latin America. The startup will help the card giant to offer Pix-related tools to client institutions.

to Pismowhich has operations in Latin America, Asia Pacific and Europe, the acquisition means to further internationalize its services and access the customers of a company the size of Visa.

Who is Pismo? Founded in 2016, it offers banking and payment services to large financial institutions, fintechs and marketplaces. Some of its clients are Itaú, BTG, Nubank, B3.

With its cloud infrastructure, Pismo works providing banking as a service solutions (bank as a service), jargon for offering banking services to companies that are not necessarily in the sector.

It makes a variety of solutions available to customers, who can select just the tool they want and integrate it into their platform, as if it were a LEGO toy.

Services include issuing cards, credit products, digital wallets and other banking products.

In numbers: fintech says generate 2.2 billion of transactions in the year, which move $208 billion, in addition to 32 million accounts created per year.

• The company’s last funding had been announced in 2021, when it raised $108 million in a series B round led by SoftBank, Accel and Amazon.

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More R$ 300 million for ‘popular cars’

The government decided to expand by R$ 300 million the incentive program for the purchase of “popular” cars. The reserved amount should now reach BRL 800 million.

Understand: The Sheet found out with members of the government that of the initial value, of R$ 500 million, only R$ 420 million could be accessed by the automakers, an amount that was reached last Friday (23).

The remaining installment was blocked by the program’s rule that ordered to accommodate within the limit the impact of the loss of collection with IPI and PIS/Cofins in the discounts made by the manufacturers.

Now, those R$80 million are again available for exclusive discounts for individuals (rental companies do not enter into the account).

The other BRL 220 million will be released to the general public (individuals and companies), but will be subject to the deduction of revenue losses in collection.

In the midst of the program, Volkswagen announced on Tuesday (27) the suspension of production at its factories in the country. The automaker justified the decision by the “stagnation of the automotive market”.

What explains automakers’ yards being crowded at a time when the government is providing incentives to the productive sector?

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AI program will boost GDP by $7.2 trillion

Amidst the debate about the risks and benefits of the evolution of AI (artificial intelligence) for humanity, a study shows that the increase in programmer productivity generated by the tool will boost global GDP by $1.5 trillion (BRL 7.2 trillion) by 2030.

• The projections are from Harvard Business School professor Marco Iansiti and the chief executive of GitHub, Thomas Dohmke – a notorious defender of the technology of the moment.

Which explains: the secret to increased productivity lies in programming assistant AIs, which allow people with less technical knowledge to develop working programs.

• The study estimates that the number of developers will rise from the current 27 million around the world for 45 million seven years from now.

In addition to helping those who know little to get started in the area, programming assistants also save a lot of time for those who understand the subject, leaving code snippets that are repeated several times throughout the program or researching sources and documentation to the algorithm.

Why it matters: the mismatch between supply and demand for programmers is a problem that affects virtually every market on the planet.

• In Brazil, there is demand for 70,000 programming professionals per year, while 45,000 professionals are trained in the period, according to a survey by the startup Digital House.

• Advocates of assistant AIs argue that these tools will help programmers, not replace them.

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The biggest influencers in the country

Datafolha listened to 1,500 people in online interviews to identify who are the most remembered Brazilian influencers on the internet.

This was one of the aspects of the survey O Melhor da Internet, carried out by the institute for the second time and which also addresses the behavior of Brazilians on networks and the brands most remembered by the public.

The biggest influencer in the country was Virginia Fonseca. Mentioned by 15% of respondents, the phenomenon of social networks daily supplies their profiles with dozens of contents, which are seen by millions of followers.

“What I show is this, the good morning from Maria Alice and Maria Flor [filhas]me and Ze [Felipe, marido, filho do cantor Leonardo], our family. I think that’s what people like to see: the truth,” Virginia told Sheet.

Top by category:

• Biggest Child Influencer: Lucas Neto. He had 17% of mentions, ahead of Xuxa (11%) and his older brother, Felipe Neto (4%).

• Top Music Influencer: Anitta, mentioned by 11%, followed by Gusttavo Lima, with 6%.

• Most Influential Religious: Fabio de Melo. The priest was mentioned by 16% of those who responded, twice as much as the runner-up, Marcelo Rossi. Then come Pastor Claudio Duarte, Pope Francisco and Silas Malafaia.

• Biggest Mood Influencer: Whindersson Nunes. He was mentioned by 25% of respondents, well ahead of the second, Tirulipa (5%).

• Key Health Influencer: Drauzio Varella. Cited by 19% of respondents. Doctor Paulo Muzy came in second, with 5%.

• Biggest Education Influencer: Rafael Lima. The teacher who owns the Mais Ciências channel on Youtube was remembered by 10% of respondents.

• Top beauty influencer: Bianca Andrade. Known as Boca Rosa, the 28-year-old businesswoman was cited by 11% of respondents.

• pet top influencer: Luisa Mel. Remembered by 17% of respondents.