Why We Invested in Stay

I’m thrilled to announce our investment in Stay! 

The Brazilian retirement savings system is fraught with problems. Rather than 401ks like we have in the US, pretty standard benefits of full-time employment, they have pension plans, and those are primarily only offered by the largest employers. Fewer than 15% of companies offer these pension plans, and only 8% of adults have them.

As investors in Human Interest, we’ve had a front row seat to the modernization of 401ks in the US. So it blew our minds to learn that nothing like this existed in the huge and developed market of Brazil, which has seen massive innovations in so many other areas of fintech. 

Stay is building technology that makes it viable for the other 85% of companies to offer retirement plans to their employees. Just like with a 401k, employees can configure recurrent monthly contributions that will be deducted from their salaries, and the contributions will be invested in their private pension plan. Employers can also easily create matching contributions and vesting policies. 

By providing this sort of simplicity, flexibility, and scalability, Stay has the potential to create a brand new market and have a positive impact on the lives of millions of Brazilians.

The founders connected over private pensions because Tsai had experience with one in Taiwan, and he and Caio were struck by the irony that Brazil's shifting demographics meant the social security system was in trouble, while the adoption of private pensions remained surprisingly low. 

Meanwhile, Nicolas was working on a similar thesis in parallel at Nubank. When Nubank decided not to pursue, Tsai, Caio, and Nicolas teamed up to build Stay.

The company already serves dozens of clients, such as Cescon Barrieu, Leve Saúde, Mölnlycke Health Care, Mara Brazil, and Agendor. If you are a Brazilian company curious about offering retirement plans to your employees, get in touch! 

Great to partner up with MAYA, Ralicap, 17Sigma, Grao, and others.

Learn more about Stay here.

Read the press release on Stay's fundraise here.