iFood Benefícios, the corporate-benefits unit of the Brazilian delivery platform iFood, has agreed to buy Caju, a startup that sells employee benefits cards, expense management and HR tools, the companies announced on October 20. They did not disclose a price. Startups and Brazil Journal, each citing unnamed sources, report that Caju was valued at about R$1 billion, a figure neither company has confirmed. The deal needs approval from Brazil’s antitrust authority, Cade, and from the central bank.

What the companies announced

Bloomberg Línea reports that the agreement was announced in a statement on Tuesday, October 20. It has been notified to Cade and still has to be sent to the Banco Central, and until the approvals are in, the two companies keep operating independently, with no effect on customers, employees or partners. InvestNews calls it the largest acquisition ever announced by iFood Benefícios, a division created in 2020.

Brazil Journal reports that leadership of the combined operation has not been decided and that the companies plan to announce an integration plan after the regulatory approvals. Caju’s co-founder and chief executive, Eduardo Del Giglio, is to stay with the combined company, the outlet says. According to Brazil Journal and Startups, Mattos Filho advised iFood legally and Pinheiro Neto advised Caju, and Brazil Journal adds that Lazard advised Caju.

The combined numbers

Startups, Bloomberg Línea and LatamList agree on the size of each side. iFood Benefícios has 65,000 client companies and 1.7 million users. Caju has more than 70,000 client companies and 1.3 million users. Together that is about 135,000 companies and 3 million users, before removing any overlap between their customer bases, Bloomberg Línea and InvestNews note.

Both companies pitch card acceptance as a selling point. Bloomberg Línea and InvestNews report that iFood Benefícios cards work at more than 11 million physical establishments and Caju’s at more than 12 million, though those networks overlap and cannot simply be added together.

Brazil Journal estimates that each company processes about R$1.3 billion a month. Assuming a take rate of 3%, which is the outlet’s own assumption and not a reported figure, it calculates annual revenue of about R$450 million for each. The same article says iFood Benefícios has reported a positive operating result in 2025 and so far in 2026, and that Caju is expected to turn a profit this year.

Caju was founded in 2020 and began with a flexible-benefits Visa card, according to Bloomberg Línea, which says it now also handles corporate expenses and people management and has more than 700 employees. Brazil Journal adds that it offers reimbursements, advances and financial products such as payroll-deducted loans and employee accounts.

A market reopened by regulation

The deal sits in Brazil’s workers’ food program, known as PAT, which Bloomberg Línea says reaches more than 22 million workers in about 470,000 companies and moves close to R$150 billion a year. The market is concentrated. Using Cade data, Bloomberg Línea says Alelo leads with about 30% and that Alelo, Pluxee, Ticket and VR together hold about 80%. Startups puts the four at more than 80%.

A decree published in November 2025, Decree No. 12,712, changed the rules, according to Bloomberg Línea. It capped the discount rate charged to merchants at 3.6% and the interchange fee at 2%, set settlement within 15 days, opened payment arrangements to more participants from May 10, and requires PAT cards to be accepted on any card machine in the country from November. The report notes that the Caju deal arrives about a month before full interoperability.

Brazil Journal explains why this matters for the established players: they historically ran closed networks in which cards worked only at affiliated merchants and the operator set the fees, while newer entrants such as Caju, iFood Benefícios and Flash use traditional card brands and wider acceptance. The outlet says the decree weakens the closed model and pressures incumbents’ margins, and that the incumbents are resisting parts of the rules.

The outlet also flags a risk: because the rules come from a presidential decree, a future government could change them without Congress. Del Giglio said he did not expect a regulatory setback, according to Brazil Journal.

Why iFood wants Caju

iFood says its ecosystem includes more than 500,000 partner establishments, 600,000 couriers and 65 million consumers, according to Bloomberg Línea. Startups summarizes the company’s argument as one of fit: the meal benefit is the money that pays for meals, and iFood already connects consumers to restaurants. Brazil Journal describes the deal as complementary, with iFood bringing distribution and consumers and Caju an HR platform that gives it a way into employers.

Arthur Freitas, chief executive of iFood Benefícios, told Bloomberg Línea that when transaction costs fall, merchants operate with more margin, and part of that gain can reach workers as cheaper meals. The company says users of its cards can get up to 40% more value from a benefit balance at iFood restaurants. InvestNews quotes Freitas saying that in limited tests combining iFood discounts with in-store offers, the average time a balance lasted rose from six to ten days to about 20 days. These are company claims.

Brazil Journal reports that the purchase is part of the R$24 billion investment plan iFood announced the previous month. Mercado & Consumo, reporting from iFood’s September 16 event, says that plan covers April 2026 to March 2027 and is 41% above the previous cycle; its article does not mention the benefits unit.

The price and an earlier attempt

LatamList, Bloomberg Línea and InvestNews say the price was not disclosed. Startups, citing people close to the deal, reports a valuation of R$1 billion in cash, and Brazil Journal’s unnamed source also says about R$1 billion, which the outlet labels unconfirmed.

Startups says that figure is roughly five times the total Caju has raised, listing R$13 million in 2020, R$45 million in 2021 and US$25 million, about R$130 million, in 2022, with investors including Valor Capital, Canary, Caravela and K1. Brazil Journal puts Caju’s total funding at about US$50 million. The two accounts differ, and the sources reviewed do not reconcile them.

iFood has tried a larger deal in the same field. Startups reports that sources said in July of last year that iFood was negotiating to buy Alelo, a deal that could exceed R$5 billion, and that Bradesco and Banco do Brasil, which control Alelo, publicly denied receiving a proposal. Brazil Journal gives a possible price of up to R$5.5 billion and does not say how the talks ended. Asked why iFood chose a challenger over an incumbent, Freitas pointed to product complementarity, the outlet says.

Rivals and regulators

Others are moving too. Startups reports that C6 Bank announced the purchase of Alymente in September, a company with more than 100,000 beneficiaries that is to become C6 Benefícios, and that BTG Pactual entered the segment about a month earlier with BTG Benefícios. Flash, it says, closed a R$150 million Series D in August led by Battery Ventures and Kevin Efrusy with Endeavor Catalyst, has about 60,000 client companies and more than 2 million workers, and counts M&A as part of its plan to lead the market by 2030, according to its chief executive, Ricardo Salem.

InvestNews says Cade will assess the effects on competition, and notes that both companies gained ground by positioning themselves as alternatives to the traditional operators, so combining them is a concentration move that needs review. Mercado & Consumo, citing Estadão Conteúdo, reports that iFood is already bound by an agreement with Cade signed about three years ago and valid until mid-2027 over alleged exclusivity with restaurants in food delivery, which is a separate matter from benefits.

What to watch

Lens analysis: the combined company’s share of the program is small next to the four incumbents. Startups estimates about 13% of beneficiaries, which it says would rank fifth, though that is the outlet’s own estimate. Bloomberg Línea describes the combined scale as modest against the size of PAT. How Cade defines the market, and whether it looks at benefits cards alone or at the wider payments chain that includes iFood’s delivery business, will shape the review, and the sources reviewed do not say.

Three dates and decisions are worth tracking: the interoperability requirement set for November, any move by incumbents to challenge the decree, and the integration plan the companies promise after approvals. The reporting also leaves open who will run the combined business, and what happens to Caju’s brand and cards.

Sources

Image: Feijoada à brasileira 3.jpg by Wilfredor, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative photo; it does not show the events described.