This article is from cointelegraph.com.br and the original article can be read here in Portuguese
One of the largest points and cashback program companies in Brazil, Méliuz, announced this Friday 20, a partnership with the Brazilian fintech Liqi.
The objective of the partnership, according to the statement, is to make Méliuz’s cryptocurrency operation more robust and involves a potential minority acquisition of Liqi, conditioned on the performance of some indicators.
With the agreement, Méliuz will gain liquidity in transaction with cryptocurrencies, as it now has access to purchase bitcoin on a new exchange, increasing the ease of buying and selling cryptocurrency on the market, in addition to expanding the portfolio of services to its more than 23 million customers.
“With the new app, Méliuz offers users a simple and easy experience to buy and sell bitcoins. The partnership with Liqi will make our operation even more robust and complete. In addition, Liqi’s purpose, to give users a leading role over their money, is perfectly aligned with ours, which motivates us even more to believe in a partnership model that can bring this know-how into the house ”explains Israel Salmen, founding partner and CEO of Méliuz.
The news comes at a time when Liqi celebrates its first year, the launch of its own brokerage firm and the contribution of R$ 27.5 million, led by Kinea Investimentos, Corporate Venture Capital of Itaú Unibanco, and other new partners in the startup.
“This partnership with one of the biggest user channel players in Brazil represents a big step for Liqi. We come from a very important sequence of partnerships and strong partnerships for the company. And having the trust of yet another important company shows that we are on the right path to achieve our purpose as a fintech, which is to democratize access to investments”, explains Liqi CEO Daniel Coquieri.
Méliuz and Bitcoin
This, however, is not Méliuz’s first exposure to the cryptocurrency universe. Last year the company announced the purchase of the fintech, Alter, also known as Alterbank. For the acquisition, Méliuz disbursed R$ 25.9 million.
The acquisition was part of an expansion plan for the company that is seeking to become a complete digital bank, like Nubank and Inter. The company’s banking platform should be launched in 2022, and for that, Méliuz has already purchased Acesso Bank for BRL 324 million.
The founders of Alter, Vinicius Frias and Thales Henrique do Couto Marques, continued in the company as executives of Méliuz. Shortly before the acquisition, Alter was elected by the traditional Brazilian TV show and website Pequenas Empresas & Grandes Negócios as one of the 100 most promising startups in Brazil.
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