Acquisition-hungry Unico buys another and looks forward to more

Acquisitions are the order of the day every day for executives at Brazilian digital ID unicorn Unico. They are in the process of digesting fintech MakroSystems, also in Brazil.

Unico, which has invested a lot of its capital in face biometrics, is buying MakroSystems for R150 million, or $29.3 million. An unknown percentage of the sale involves equities. MakroSystems algorithms monitor financial transactions, looking for the unexpected and hard-to-explain, and halts anything that smells of fraud in a bank’s app.

The company’s biometric authentication software, Check, is its top revenue generator, but the software’s producing power is waning, according to an article by business news publication Brazil Journal.

That article ticks off unico’s acquisitions. Arkivus was bought in 2017, and last year, it acquired Meerket, SkillHub, Vianuvem and CredDefense last year.

Executives have an appetite for more buyouts and mergers, too.

Speaking with Brazil Journal, unico CEO Diego Martins said he is looking for opportunities that give the company global reach, mentioning Mexico and the United States as attractive markets.

Unico is not short of money to broaden its product lines or its regional markets. In April, the company closed a $100 million D series round led by Goldman Sachs. The placement valued unico at $2.6 billion, according to Reuters.

Softbank and General Atlantic participated in that round.

They had led unico’s previous round, when it became the country’s first biometrics unicorn, by raising R625 million ($120 million at the time). The pair were there for its series B, too, back when the company was called Acesso Digital.

Article Topics

acquisitions  |  biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  face biometrics  |  fraud prevention  |  secure transactions  |  Unico