In recent years, the company has adopted a strategy focused on acquiring companies, with the most recent purchase being that of Newtail, a Brazilian startup specializing in retail media, in January 2025. But the company’s appetite for M&As appears to have cooled, giving way to a more focused stance on the business itself in 2026.
For co-founder Geraldo Thomaz, during a press conference held this Thursday (16), on VTEX Day, “buying a company now would be a lack of focus”. According to the executive, the company chose to pause the pace of acquisitions to concentrate efforts on reinventing the business using artificial intelligence.
“This is the great opportunity of the moment. Buying a company now can distract us instead of generating opportunities. So, our current focus and strategy is on transforming companies in the new paradigm. And if we transform faster than our competitors, we will go back to buying companies”, he adds.
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The effort within the field of artificial intelligence has been so great that VTEX presented, during the event,: the VTEX Commerce Platform (focused on commerce management), the VTEX CX Platform (customer experience) and the VTEX Ads Platform (monetization). The proposal marks a structural change in the company, which now integrates AI as the basis of its entire operation.
The idea is that artificial intelligence agents will begin to act more autonomously from internal operations to contact with the consumer. In practice, this should unlock productivity, simplify processes and make experiences more personalized, while also opening up space for new sources of revenue.
Where does VTEX fit into the AI era?
But the question remains: with the implementation of artificial intelligence, what is the role of VTEX in a scenario increasingly dominated by agents and tools that allow any company to create its own solutions? Co-founder Mariano Gomide de Faria stated that, despite the increasing ease of developing software, this should not reduce the space of companies in the sector — on the contrary.
According to the executive, the trend is for the number of software companies to increase, as artificial intelligence reduces barriers and expands access to development. Still, he considers that creating specific solutions is different from sustaining a robust operation, especially when factors such as security, compliance and responsibility come into play, critical aspects for large retailers and global brands.
“We believe that VTEX is the transactional layer that connects brands and retailers to consumers, across all channels, from B2C to B2B. With the proliferation of AI models and the increase in traffic, it is now that brands and retail stand out. Knowing what to deliver, to whom to deliver it and at what price to deliver it, this will always be a function of retail and the brand. This value will not be eliminated by artificial intelligence”, he says.
VTEX went public in 2021 on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), with the ambition to become the foundational platform for global e-commerce.
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The company ended the fourth quarter of 2025 with robust results, driven by the advancement of its global operations and greater operational efficiency. Gross merchandise volume (GMV) totaled US$6.3 billion in the period, growth of 17.2% compared to the same quarter of the previous year, while total revenue rose 10.5%, reaching US$68 million. The main driver of this performance continued to be subscription revenue, which accounted for 98.1% of revenue and reached US$66.7 million, an increase of 12.2%.
Year-to-date, the strategy of focusing on large customers also gained strength, with 158 companies generating annual recurring revenue (ARR) in excess of US$250,000, at the same time that international expansion maintained an accelerated pace, with a 21.6% increase in subscription revenue outside the main Latin American markets.
