Market intelligence platform Atom Finance is betting on Brazil

As Robinhood and GameStop debacles this year put a spotlight on the growing number of retail investors, New York-based Atom Finance aims to offer a suite of research tools comparable to a Bloomberg terminal at a more affordable price point. The goal is to help consumers make better decisions. The company this week announced it’s partnering with Brazilian digital bank Banco Inter, a move that puts its offering in front of 10 million potential customers.

Why should we care?
Atom is looking to expand its customer base beyond its core U.S. market, where it typically serves investors who have some experience. Brazil, says founder and CEO Eric Shoykhet, is in the midst of a retail investing boom after its central bank dropped interest rates. In 2020, Brazilian central bank’s benchmark short-term rate, the selic, was 2% compared to 14% in 2016. This development pushed more consumers to invest in equities, making it a growth opportunity for Atom. It remains to be seen if Atom can gain a foothold in this new territory, but Shoykhet says we’ve yet to see interest in equities peak among Brazilian consumers. Atom, which has so far raised $20M, said its number of paying subscribers has grown three-fold since the beginning of the year. “Our view is that Brazil is about to go through what happened in the U.S., starting in probably the discount brokerage era, where you had a dramatic boom in retail investor participation,” he said.