Itaú Unibanco announced on Monday, the 26th, the acquisition of NeoSpace AI, a company from Uberlândia, located in the Triângulo Mineiro region. The deal involved a value of R$ 2.925 billion for the startup, which specializes in creating foundational artificial intelligence models.
NeoSpace AI had already maintained a collaboration with the financial institution for almost two years. During this partnership period, the technology developed by the startup was applied in various areas of the bank, such as credit analysis, fraud prevention mechanisms, and improving customer relationships.
For the transaction to be finalized, Itaú informed that it still requires approval from both the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade) and the Central Bank of Brazil (BC).
With this purchase, the bank now possesses an internal structure dedicated to developing sophisticated artificial intelligence models specifically focused on the financial sector. Itaú highlighted that this will enable the creation of more customized solutions, which consider the moment and context of each client when assisting in their financial decisions, always maintaining rigorous care for security, privacy, and responsible data use.
Furthermore, the operation strengthens the innovation ecosystem of the city of Uberlândia. According to data collected by UberHub, the startup community of Uberlândia, the city's technology companies have generated about R$ 13 billion in investments, acquisitions, and added value over the last eight years. With the inclusion of NeoSpace AI, this total value approaches R$ 16 billion.
According to Itaú, NeoSpace is dedicated to developing foundational artificial intelligence, which focuses on identifying complex patterns and relationships in large volumes of data. This specialization allows the startup to create models tailored to the specific characteristics of different market segments.
The bank detailed that the development of these models expands the options for personalizing banking services, offering solutions capable of addressing different financial situations and needs throughout the customer relationship, respecting the principles of security, privacy, and ethical data use.
Additionally, Itaú emphasized that the integration of the startup represents a natural progression of a partnership that already showed good results and which now gains the conditions to boost new projects in the field of artificial intelligence.
It is important to note that, even after the acquisition, NeoSpace AI will maintain its operations autonomously. The company will remain under the management of CEO Bruno Pierobon, preserving its team and the research culture established since its founding.