MIT Solve

Solution overview

Our Solution

BLU365

Tagline

A data-driven, customer-centric debt negotiation platform that transforms the relationship between companies and customers (in arrears)

Pitch us on your solution

We will be the place for indebted customers (in Brazil - 60 million people) to consult and resolve their financial needs. As for companies, we will be the preferred partner for intelligent solutions based on customer behavior and A.I.

What is the problem you are solving?

BLU365 is a debt negotiation platform that combines very unique competencies to generate value to both creditors and debtors. By combining our expertise in data science, CRM and performance-driven marketing, we help creditors find their customers in the digital channels. We use predictive statistical models heavily and help creditors enhance returns in more than 15%. On the other hand, we make available to debtors several free services which educate and help them understand what are the best alternatives for debt negotiation and financial organization.

Who are you serving?

We've more than 60M people in debt in Brazil, and when they need some help, they don't find it properly. The traditional collection approach is very ineffective and serves badly both creditors and debtors (low quality, not customer oriented, expensive, low margins, poor analytics). Although they desperately want to pay off their debts/clear their names, they're usually unemployed or had other issues, and had to prioritize other bills that cover their basic needs (electricity, rent, food). Since they're in a very weak and vulnerable financial situation, their voices aren't heard by the banks and institutions anymore, as they are no longer people of interest. This exclusion from the economy market is not only extremely detrimental to their finances but also to their self-esteem. Our main goal is to disrupt the market and change this scenario, by giving customers the option of a digital, humanized and private debt negotiation. This choice empowers people as it sets a new example of how they should expect to be treated. And since we're B2B2C, we interact daily with Enterprises (Banks, Retail, Utilities), so with proof that our model works, we end up influencing them to change their approach towards these customers as well.

What is your solution?

We focus on customer engagement through digital channels. We have more than 22 million customers apt to negotiate in our platform. Our main focus is the integration with more lenders in order to expand our customer database. Only in Brazil we have more than 60 million people in delinquency. It represents more than 40% of the economically active population. That is a huge opportunity only in Brazil, with more than USD 60 billion in past due debt outstanding, considering only individual banking debt. It is more than a USD 3 billion in revenues to be seized. In the future, we also plan on expanding to other countries which also hold a huge debt burden and (sadly) delinquency, such as Latam, US and Canada.

Select only the most relevant.

Create or advance equitable and inclusive economic growth

Where is your solution team headquartered?

São Paulo, State of São Paulo, Brazil

Our solution's stage of development:

Growth

More about your solution

Select one of the below:

New application of an existing technology

Describe what makes your solution innovative.

We are the only platform that combines in one single place data science, digital channels (eg LP, messenger bot, WhatsApp bot), CRM and performance-driven marketing competencies. We hold the biggest customer database (c. 20mm) and their respective behavior-related data-points, which allow our algorithms to perform best and add more value for both creditors and debtors. Our team is also very differentiated, combining an industry solid background with digital business best practices experience.

Other organizations don't have data science strategies and use traditional debt collection approaches, that are not only inefficient, but also fear-based and harmful to the relationship between creditors and debtors.

Describe the core technology that your solution utilizes.

Through technology, we are able to escalate and optimize the integration process of the B2B databases, gather behavioral data about clients to identify the right moment, channel and message to impact them with, have multiple support channels to better serve our clients (Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS, email), and offer an easy way to generate deals, liquidate debts and clear their names.

The main components in our system architecture are: Heavy use of Cloud services. Front-End/Back-end: Serverless Architecture, Lambda Functions, Docker containers/ECS, API Gateway, Message Queues, MongoDB, MySQL/Aurora, Redis, ElasticSearch, Python, NodeJS, PHP. Big Data: Presto/Athena, Hadoop/Spark/EMR, Apache Nifi, Analytics/Predictive Modeling, Python, NodeJS, Java, Groovy.

Those technology is already in production and have been used over the last couple of years to feed our data-lake with near 01 petabyte of structured and unstructured data which we intend to use to develop/train our AI and machine learning algorithms to build the next level of product and services in our company pushing the edge of industry to a new level.

In which countries do you currently operate?

Brazil

In which countries will you be operating within the next year?

Brazil

How many people are you currently serving with your solution? How many will you be serving in one year? How about in five years?

We've had around 1.5 million generated deals, which represent the people we helped get out of debt in a friendly, humanized and private manner.

Although it's harder to measure the direct impact of this action, we also have a blog with financial organization tips, with around 1.5 thousand daily views. Besides that, we've carried out a few surveys to identify how else we could help our clients, which led us to develop new services and multiple partnerships with other companies that offer great solutions, such as non-bureaucratic loans with low interest rates, alternative opportunities to earn extra income, and others.

What are your goals within the next year and within the next five years?

BLU will accelerate growth via robust and personalized offerings and gains of efficiency. For the next 24 months, our roadmap is focused on 4 strategic drivers: (1) New customers growth (2) Increased customers' share-of-wallet (3) Gains of efficiency (4) Attract and engage with new users.

During the next 12 months, we will capture further efficiency and growth opportunities, whilst unblocking accelerated growth afterwards: (1) Strong growth in platform access and generated deals (2) Growth of 2.6X in revenues.

What are the barriers that currently exist for you to accomplish your goals for the next year and for the next five years?

As we progress further in leveraging on customer behavior patterns that only BLU holds (22m people and respective behavior patterns organized and available) we have been demanded by companies to be compliant with the new customer data protection law. Customer data protection in an important part of our culture and we have robust policies and processes to manage it. Additionally we will review all the policies in order to warranty we are compliant with the new law.

How are you planning to overcome these barriers?

In order to comply with data protection laws, we've made data protection in an important part of our culture and we have robust policies and processes to manage it. Additionally we will review all the policies in order to warranty we are compliant with the new law.

About your team

Your business model & funding

Partnership potential