You’ve probably heard that old saying: where there is a problem, there is also an opportunity and, consequently, a solution. It’s the favorite cliché in networking circles, but in practice, it separates those who paralyze in the face of a crisis from those who profit from it.
Today’s article will bring the story of a real estate startup that took this saying very seriously.
But first, a brief context.
The problem
Currently, with the Selic rate hovering around an unpleasant 14.75% per year, money in Brazil is expensive. When interest rates rise like this, the first tap to dry is credit – and the real estate market, which relies on leverage and long-term financing to make its operations viable, is the one that most feels the pressure in its veins.
Continues after advertising
Faced with the increase in the cost of capital and also the emptying of savings accounts (historically, the main source of subsidies for the housing sector), traditional banks began to hold on to resources for new ventures. In practice, the little money that remains is directed only to ultra-secure operations, dominated by the giants in the sector.
This entire movement generated asymmetric paralysis in the sector. Small and medium-sized developers, especially those with projects located outside the popular “Faria Lima axis”, find their doors closed.
Result: many promising ventures with proven demand simply cannot get subsidies to get off the ground. The market shrinks not because of a lack of buyers, but because of a bottleneck in access to capital, creating a kind of graveyard of projects that clash with the conservative spreadsheet of credit institutions.
The opportunity
To understand how this arid land became a hotbed of innovation, we need to meet Murilo Marchesini. Real estate is not just your profession; It is a legacy that spans three generations of his family. This passion for bricks and concrete began with his grandfather, shaped his father’s career and, inevitably, forged his own business vision.
Following the family legacy, in 2016, Murilo founded Verticale S/A, a developer focused on residential and commercial buildings with a very clear thesis: operating in five municipalities on the northern edge of Greater São Paulo. A region that, combined, boasts a respectable GDP of R$30 billion.
One of Verticale’s main focuses was the development of high-end buildings in Cajamar, the city home to the largest concentration of logistics warehouses in the country. Surfing the wake of the e-commerce boom, the business grew exponentially, reaching R$300 million in PSV (General Sales Value, the main indicator used to measure the size of a company in the construction industry). With this amount, the developer became one of the main players in the region and adjacent municipalities.
Continues after advertising
The expansion gained even more traction in 2021, when Verticale entered into a joint venture with a regional group. The operation raised R$20 million, guaranteeing the necessary liquidity for the company’s biggest growth cycle. Since then, however, the successful script has encountered serious setbacks.
The pandemic messed up shopping appetite. Inflation soared, global logistics chains broke and construction material costs soared. Suddenly, Verticale’s aggressive expansion planning was at risk of collapsing due to lack of credit in the traditional market.
The solution
It was precisely from this vital need to oxygenate the company’s own cash flow that Finamob was born. The sudden change in the source of resources for housing forced Murilo to completely change his operating model.
At least a decade ago, he had a genuine interest in the capital market as an alternative way of financing real estate – having even completed a postgraduate course on the subject in Brazil in 2015.
Armed with this technical knowledge about LCIs, CRIs and other financial market acronyms, he decided not to wait for the storm to pass. He put together a careful list of managers based in Faria Lima and went knocking on the doors of each one of them, with the sole objective of guaranteeing the resources that Verticale needed to avoid paralyzing its works.
Persistence and a solid business model turned into impressive numbers: there were five fundraisings that, together, injected R$100 million to make the construction company’s future viable.
The market, as expected, did not ignore the movement. Acquaintances who were ahead of other construction companies and suffered from the same credit crunch kept an eye on Marchesini’s unlikely feat. What was initially a survival movement for the company itself turned out to be a scalable business model for the entire sector.
By creating a mechanism that connects Faria Lima’s appetite to the needs of regional construction companies in search of credit. In 2024, Finamob consolidated itself as a vital cog in the ecosystem.
In practice, the mechanics of “proptech” work based on an acronym well known to investors: the FIDC (Credit Rights Investment Fund). In short, it is a vehicle that “packages” debts and receivables, selling shares on the market. Finamob structures these credit operations and transfers the resources to finance the works of its clients, earning a percentage on the interest on this debt.
However, the involvement with the business of those at the forefront is so deep that, in some specific cases, the startup goes beyond the role of creditor and becomes a minority partner in the ventures, guaranteeing a share of the profits from the completed project.
In just one year, between 2024 and 2025, the volume of credit structured via FIDCs by the operation jumped from R$88 million to R$285 million – a significant leap in 224%.
The new target is no less aggressive: the expectation for 2026 is to reach the R$500 million in originated credit, once and for all paving the definitive bridge between large investment funds and the country’s regional developers.
Continues after advertising
Conclusion
Ultimately, Finamob’s trajectory invites us to practical and direct reflection. Faced with a severe macroeconomic bottleneck, the easiest way out would have been to back down, blame the rise in the Selic rate and justify the stagnation. However, the instinct for resolution transformed what was previously insurmountable into a new avenue of opportunities.
Bringing this to our Idea Therapy today: what about you? Have you viewed obstacles in your industry and changes in the market as simply insurmountable problems, or are you using friction to design, build and finance the new solutions that everyone around you needs?
