Today, Gupy announced a R$ 500M investment round led by SoftBank and Riverwood. As we celebrate this new achievement, we've also taken the time to look back on why MAYA invested in Gupy in December 2018.
When Lara and Monica were starting MAYA CAPITAL, they spoke to hundreds of founders to understand what the ecosystem lacked and how MAYA could fill these gaps. One of these founders happened to be Mariana Ramos Dias. We left that conversation extremely impressed by Mariana, her vision, energy, and passion for building the next generation of HR in LatAm. As a result, what should have been a casual coffee chat, turned into MAYA's first investment. Fast-forward +3 years, and Mariana's original vision, combined with the exceptional execution of her co-founders Bruna Guimarães, Guilherme Henrique Dias, Robson Rodrigues, and the entire Gupy team, Gupy is now the leader in technology for human resources in Brazil, has over 22M users and 60k new positions published every month. It is the pioneer in applying AI to recruitment processes in the region and offers tools that range from recruiting to onboarding and the development of employees.
Back in 2018, there was no team more prepared or qualified to solve for the lack of efficiency in the recruitment and selection processes, and it's exciting to see that this is still very much true today. Below, we describe in more detail why we saw so much potential 3 years ago and why we still are bullish on this opportunity.
Best-in-class team, with unique culture: Gupy's co-founders have a clear set of complementary skills with deep expertise in HR, B2B Sales, Finance, and Product. Mariana Dias, the CEO, was the one that identified the clear pain point large enterprises deal with when recruiting, during her time at Ambev and to this day, she remains responsible for Gupy's strategy. Bruna Guimarães, also during her time at Ambev, developed deep knowledge of operations within the People & Management division and was able to build a sales machine from scratch at Gupy. Guilherme, Mariana's brother who lived with her when she started to think about starting Gupy, brought to the table a consultant's point of view and today leads marketing. Meanwhile Robson, has a background in highly technological environments which gave him the knowhow and tools to create Gupy's pioneering AI. All 4 founders have prioritized the cultivation of one of the strongest cultures and positive work environments in the market. The ‘Gupiers’ are among the most engaged bunch we've seen and this dedication to the company coupled with a focus on execution, has translated into the attainment of even the most impossible seeming targets over the last years.
Massive problem to be solved as recruitment is an inefficient and costly process: On average, companies can take up to 40 days to fill a job opening in Brazil, while companies in the US are at an average of 24 days. The global recruitment TAM is US$500bn, and in Brazil, the online recruitment market is worth US$10bn, the 5th largest globally. Human resources across all segments is going through changes as data analysis takes on an even larger role in decision making processes. Gupy is tackling this through its disruptive product for large enterprises, which is sold through a ruthless B2B salesforce and implemented by a top tier customer success team. But they are not satisfied yet. In Brazil, enterprises see an average turnover of 30%, driving cost pressures and increasing inefficiencies as businesses have to allocate time and resources to deal with such high turnovers. This will be Gupy's next challenge.
Why are we still bullish on Gupy?
There's still so much opportunity for disruption in the HR space: This round is the largest amount of funds raised by an HR platform in LatAm and a startup founded by women. Nevertheless, this is just the beginning for Gupy. Only 3 months ago it closed it's first M&A - Niduu, an education solution for employees. There's still a lot of opportunity to digitize processes and increase their client base of over 1500 companies, by offering an even larger array of HR solutions that will decrease turnover, such as: a free marketplace with job openings where over 20k positions are published per month. With clients in over 10 countries across LatAm, Gupy is well positioned to lead change in the HR space.
We are thrilled to be Gupy's partner in building the next generation of human resources solutions that on the one hand, help candidates and employees grow within their careers, and on the other, empowers HR divisions and leaders to increase their teams potential!
If you're wondering what the Gupy team thinks about the partnership with MAYA, here's what the founders have to say:
"Throughout my journey as an entrepreneur at Gupy, I've always looked for women I could be inspired by. I was very happy when MAYA, a fund led by two highly competent and admirable women, invested in Gupy. Lara and Monica have been more than investors, they are partners that helped in numerous ways to build this journey", said Mariana Ramos Dias, CEO and Co-founder of Gupy.
