The know-how of those who built it companies that transformed markets and the ambition to redefine the operational basis of organizations resulted in one of the startups most promising in the country. Two well-known names in the Latin American innovation ecosystem have come together in a billion-dollar bet in the era of artificial intelligence corporate.
Fernando Gadotti, founder of DogHero, and Sebastian Mejía, co-founder of , have just launched Tako, a company that promises to redefine how companies manage their people operations through artificial intelligence.
Tako acts as an AI infrastructure for people operations, integrating payroll, intelligent agents and applications into a single platform. The system continuously learns from data and acts autonomously on critical tasks, such as calculations, conferences and labor compliance.
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“Tako was born from the desire to rethink the foundation. We wanted to create a new infrastructure for companies to operate with more intelligence and speed, making better decisions about their main asset: people”, says Fernando Gadotti, co-founder and CEO.
Technology, not digitization of the old
Founded in 2022, the startup spent two years in “stealth mode”, developing the technology before being presented to the market in November last year. Since then, it has raised R$175 million in rounds led by Ribbit Capital and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), two of the most respected funds in Silicon Valley.
The company’s headquarters are in São Paulo, with an office in San Francisco (USA), and already serves clients such as Daki, Azos, Starkbank, Warren, Tractian and SouSmile. The difference, according to Gadotti, is the depth of automation.
“Tako is no longer HR software. It is an AI infrastructure that understands Brazilian rules, learns from data and anticipates errors. While other solutions help HR organize tasks, Tako takes on the work”, he explains.
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Solving a billion-dollar problem
Tako’s starting point was a common challenge in the founders’ previous journeys: the complexity of Brazilian labor legislation. The current system is expensive, fragmented and dependent on manual processes.
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Tako’s platform unifies all employee lifecycle information, from hiring to dismissal, all in a single system. It includes payroll, vacations, interactive payslips and specialized support in compliance and labor consultancy.
The result is tangible: more than R$1 billion processed in payrolls last year, with average efficiency gains above 60% and savings of up to seven days of work in payroll processing.
DogHero + Rappi: experiences that shaped Tako
Both Gadotti and Mejía have experienced in practice the challenges of scaling businesses that depend on complex human operations. “At DogHero, I learned the importance of solid processes behind every good experience,” says Gadotti.
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“Sebas experienced the same thing at Rappi, creating infrastructure for millions of daily interactions. What unites us is this vision: companies that last are those that build a base. That’s what we do with Tako”, concludes the CEO of Tako.
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Looking to the future
Tako’s ambition is global. According to the CEO, the pain that the company solves is not exclusive to Brazil, although the country is fertile ground due to the high complexity of local rules.
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“Every company, anywhere in the world, faces the challenge of scaling its people operations with precision and control. Our focus now is to consolidate Tako as the AI infrastructure that supports large Brazilian companies, but the potential for international expansion is enormous.”
Today, Gadotti has already completed his cycle at DogHero (after the merger with Petlove), while Mejía remains on the board of Rappi, but is fully dedicated to Tako.
