Case studies

A provider that paid out all its profit to the partner was professionalized, grew 40% in two years, doubled in value and was sold.

An internet provider in Rio Grande do Sul, operating in Planalto, Nonoai and the surrounding region, was the kind of company many would like to own: lean and cash-generating. The problem was what happened to that cash. The partner withdrew all the profit to his personal accounts, and almost nothing was reinvested in the business. In the short run, it looked like a good arrangement. In the long run, it was a brake.

A Minas Gerais company that didn't know its own margins created a chart of accounts, trained its team and grew to R$ 1.2 million a month.

A company in Minas Gerais had revenue of R$ 800 thousand a month, and still operated at breakeven or at a loss. The owners worked hard and never saw the money. The reason wasn't a lack of sales. It was a lack of visibility into their own numbers.

With the client pregnant and the sale under way, Vispe sped up a 45-day M&A process without compromising quality or the company's value.

Selling a company is already one of the most delicate moments in a business owner's life. Now imagine doing it while pregnant, with the process stalled for more than a year and the need to finish everything before the pregnancy enters its final stage. That was the situation of a businesswoman who owned a small internet provider in Rio Grande do Norte, with revenue of about R$ 300 thousand a month. The business was for sale, and the M&A process was moving, but not at the speed her life required.

A São Paulo provider was burning R$ 150 thousand a month without knowing its own numbers. In a year, it got out of the red and tripled the company's value.

An internet provider in São Paulo had revenue of about R$ 400 thousand a month, but lived in the red. Every month, about R$ 150 thousand was missing from the cash. The numbers weren't organized, and the partners didn't know what the company was worth. High revenue and negative cash at the same time is a classic sign of an operation that grew faster than its own structure.

Due diligence revealed liabilities larger than a provider's price. The buyer walked away and preserved R$ 10 million.

Not every successful M&A ends with a signed contract. Sometimes the best deal is the one you don't make. An internet provider in Minas Gerais, with revenue of R$ 1.5 million a month, was expanding fast and asked Vispe Capital to lead its growth through acquisitions. The goal was to find and buy competitors with operational synergy and an immediate gain in subscribers.

A Santa Catarina provider dependent on its owner and short on cash was organized, divested a portfolio and sold for R$ 4.8 million, 60% above the initial estimate.

Two years ago, the owner of an internet provider in Santa Catarina, with revenue of R$ 280 thousand a month, came to Vispe with two questions: what is my company worth? And is it possible to exit? The operation was healthy. The diagnosis, however, showed that healthy is not the same as sellable.

A small internet provider in Espírito Santo, with no financial controls at all, started to see its margins, cash and bank statements clearly.

The owner of a small internet provider in Espírito Santo worked hard. The company had revenue of about R$ 80 thousand a month, customers, a network and a team. What it didn't have was the answer to a simple question: where was the money going? This is more common than it seems among regional providers. The business grows on the founder's effort, and financial management is left for later. Until the day cash starts to show it won't hold.

A tech company with high turnover of key talent created a partnership program with goals and vesting, and began to retain and grow its team.

In technology companies, the most valuable asset isn't in the servers or the code. It's in the people. A technology company in the Distrito Federal knew this, and still watched its best talent leave. The business model was solid, the product had traction and salaries were competitive. Even so, there was a deep disconnect between the team and the company's long-term vision.

A multi-sector entrepreneur sold his telecom business in 60 days, with 40% upfront, and reinvested the proceeds in his other businesses.

An entrepreneur with businesses across several sectors in Espírito Santo owned a mature telecom company in Serra, with revenue of about R$ 240 thousand a month and excellent performance. His other businesses had nothing to do with telecom, and they urgently needed capital, either to expand or to cover bottlenecks. The decision was to sell the telecom business, his most valuable asset, to generate fast liquidity.

A provider with no financial control, tight cash and late bills doubled its revenue and valuation through controllership and a focus on the bottleneck.

In January 2023, an internet provider in Ceará had revenue of about R$ 280 thousand a month. It was growing, but growing without structure. There was no financial control, margins were poor, cash was always tight and bills were starting to run late. The goal at that point was simple and urgent: not to drown in more problems.

A provider that bought competitors with personal assets learned to use a partner fund to finance the down payment and doubled its revenue.

The partner of an internet provider in Mato Grosso do Sul had a clear growth strategy: buy other providers and grow the customer base, with an eye on increasing the company's value over time. He had already made a few small acquisitions in installments. The catch was how he paid the down payment: with his own personal assets. It worked. But it had a cost he hadn't yet put on paper.

A regional provider with 6 thousand subscribers and reactive cash management raised R$ 1.2 million and reached 9.1 thousand subscribers, while cutting the cost of its debt.

A regional provider in Pernambuco had about 6 thousand subscribers, healthy demand and stable growth. But growth was stuck at organic. Meanwhile, the region was consolidating, with small providers being bought by better-capitalized competitors. The partners watched the opportunities go by and knew that if they didn't act, they would fall behind.

A São Paulo provider was paying 12% a month on its overdraft. It swapped expensive debt for structured capital, freed up cash and started investing again.

An internet provider in São Paulo was growing in customers and revenue, but didn't see the money reach its cash. The explanation was interest. The company had built up R$ 150 thousand in debt: R$ 80 thousand on overdraft, at 12% a month, and R$ 70 thousand in receivables advances, costing between 3% and 5% a month. It was what you might call false profit: the operation generated results, but the cost of money ate it all.

A regional provider with 100 thousand subscribers raised R$ 100 million with governance, auditable data and a validated expansion plan, and swapped expensive debt for structured capital.

An internet provider in Pará was a benchmark in its region: 100 thousand loyal subscribers, a quality fiber-optic network, customer satisfaction above the sector average and governance being put in place. But the telecom market was consolidating fast, and to avoid being swallowed by large carriers or well-capitalized competitors, the company needed to double in size. It had the engine ready and a clear runway. What was missing was fuel.

A provider with no acquisition history used a partner fund to finance the purchase of a competitor and saw its equity grow 250%.

An internet provider in Goiás, with revenue of about R$ 600 thousand a month, wanted to grow. It knew the fastest way was to buy other providers' customer bases, but it had never made an acquisition. It didn't know how to run the process and, above all, didn't know how to buy without putting its own cash at risk. That doubt holds back many business owners in the sector. An acquisition seems too big, too risky, and keeps getting postponed.

A provider with an expensive network expected R$ 80 million. With auditable documents, the valuation came to about R$ 35 million, and the report became the basis for other ways to negotiate.

The partner of an internet provider operating in Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, with revenue of around R$ 6.8 million, wanted to leave the business. His plan was to recover what he had already invested and, in his words, even double it. His expectation was anchored in one number: the value of the network he had built.

A cybersecurity company with a tight margin found tax savings of about R$ 315 thousand a year, without changing its operation.

Not every controllership project starts with a problem. A cybersecurity company in São Paulo, operating nationwide with revenue of R$ 993 thousand a month, was efficient and had no cash issues. Even so, money was being left on the table.

The partners of a company with R$ 10 million in revenue thought it was worth R$ 20 million. The report showed a range of R$ 14.9 to 15.2 million and helped them decide to sell.

The partners of a company in Minas Gerais, with revenue of about R$ 10 million, had a R$ 18 million purchase offer on the table. But by their "gut feeling," the company was worth at least R$ 20 million. They came to Vispe with a clear request: validate that feeling before responding to the offer.

A large regional player that had never made an acquisition bought a competitor with structured funding, paying R$ 5 million less than the initial asking price.

A market-leading company in Bahia had reached the top through organic growth. The operation was solid, market leadership was secured and the natural next step was to grow through acquisitions. There was just one problem: in its entire history, the company had never bought a competitor. Money wasn't the issue. What was missing was a reliable execution arm to carry out the company's first M&A deal without putting at risk what had been built over decades.

A provider's partner wanted to sell because of the risk to part of the network. The valuation hit the target, and the deal structure brought taxes to zero.

The partner of an internet provider with revenue of R$ 4.5 million a year had decided to sell. Part of the company's network was in a dangerous area of Rio de Janeiro, and that risk was no longer worth it. He wanted to invest in another region and another business model, and to end his involvement in the telecom sector. To sell well, though, he needed something that isn't always clear from the inside: what the business is really worth.

An e-commerce consulting firm with shrinking cash found out it was selling below cost and reorganized its team and pricing.

An e-commerce consulting firm in Paraná had revenue of about R$ 130 thousand a month and watched its cash balance shrink month after month. The owner knew there was a problem, but only noticed it by looking at the bank statement. He didn't know where the operation was losing money, or how big the loss was. It's the kind of situation in which the company keeps running, customers keep being served, and the problem grows quietly until it becomes urgent.