Brazil’s Locaweb acquires Octadesk platform for US$20 million

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Locaweb on Monday, August 2, announced the acquisition of Octadesk, a chat management platform to help companies in lead generation, sales and customer service, connecting consumers to companies through digital channels.

The transaction was worth R$102 (US$20) million.

According to the agreement, Octadesk owners Rodrigo Ricco and Leandro Ueda should remain in the operation and Locaweb would also keep the same team of employees.

According to the company’s information, Octadesk is posting strong growth in 2021 with the management of 3 million chats and annual recurring revenue of R$25 million, a growth of 100% year-on-year.

Founded in São Paulo, Octadesk is a Software as a Service platform focused on the relationship of small and medium-sized companies with their clients in various digital channels, such as WhatsApp, Instagram, chat and e-mail. The company claims that digital outreach contributes to increased sales for its customers.

“Social Commerce and Conversational Commerce are now present in the online purchasing decision process of approximately 65% of people worldwide. In addition to the company’s existing Social Commerce initiatives, Octadesk will contribute to an unprecedented range of solutions for our e-commerce ecosystem in Brazil,” said Locaweb’s CEO Fernando Cirne in a statement.

Locaweb has been in the web hosting market since 1999, after changing the initial course of its business, which was focused on the digitalization of textile companies. Since then, the company has made a number of acquisitions, such as Tray, Delivery Direto and Vindi, the latter for R$180 million.

With these acquisitions the company aims to establish a digital transformation ecosystem for small and medium-sized companies. It is one of the symbols of the new stock exchange phase, which is currently filled with technology companies such as Totvs, Positivo Tecnologia, Intebras, Meliuz, and Enjoei.

In numbers, Locaweb’s board members sold R$15 million in shares and almost R$70 million in 2020 – excluding the IPO and follow-on. The company debuted on the stock market valued at R$2.6 billion and yesterday closed the trading session worth more than R$15.25 billion.