Brazilian startup D4Sign is acquired by Italian multinational Zucchetti for more than US$32 million

D4Sign, brazilian electronic signature platform, has been acquired by the Italian technology multinational company Zucchetti, in a transaction worth US$32 million - the largest ever made by the European group in Brazil. With this transaction, D4Sign - which now includes "by Zucchetti" in its name - intends to bring solutions to the multinational's more than 100,000 customers in Brazil and accelerate its international expansion process. Zucchetti is currently present in more than 15 countries.

D4Sign's international expansion began after strong results in Brazil. Today, they have a presence in several Latin American countries, Mexico being the last market they arrived at early this year. With this in mind, and to take the next step toward global growth, the partners Rafael Figueiredo, the company's CEO, together with Rodrigo Figueiredo, Nahim Silva, and Bruno Kawakami recognized that the time had come to align with a powerful brand. Zucchetti emerged as the ideal partner. For this strategic move, D4Sign enlisted the support of global mergers and acquisitions group Pipeline Capital as its Financial Advisor.

"Expanding operations internationally requires a highly detailed approach. It is essential to thoroughly understand the market, establish new contacts, and grasp how business is conducted in that region. We believe that joining a multinational group like Zucchetti, which operates in 15 countries and does business with another 50, will allow us to accelerate these plans further, as we will gain access to the know-how of a well-established international player," says Rafael Figueiredo.
The Italian multinational has been in Brazil for 13 years and today boasts its largest base of clients and partners outside Italy in the Brazilian market, providing technology to sectors such as retail, industry, and human resources. Additionally, it follows a global expansion strategy focused on mergers and acquisitions, with seven acquisitions in Brazil alone. According to the group's CEO in the country, Alessio Mainardi, this strategy is not only based on future growth expectations but also considers the historical performance of the companies and their key indicators, such as recurring revenue, profit margins, and innovation capacity. The recent performance of D4Sign has been impressive.
Serving 35,000 companies, D4Sign experienced a 400% growth in business volume between 2019 and 2020, driven by the acceleration of digital solutions adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This acquisition is a significant step for Zucchetti in Brazil. Here we have a substantial client base and over 3,000 partners, who resell our solutions and are eager for innovations in their daily operations. D4Sign offers robust technology and a highly skilled team and, together, the two companies will be able to deliver even more comprehensive solutions to clients both domestically and internationally," said Alessio Mainardi, CEO of Zucchetti in Brazil.
After the objectives were aligned, the deal was finalized — with the contract signed via D4Sign’s platform. Over the next two years, during the earnout period, the subscription company will remain independent.

D4Signs’s solutions involve security, automation, and artificial intelligence

Since its founding, D4Sign’s primary concern has been ensuring the legal validity of the signatures generated on its platform. To address this, the company focused on authentication points and developed innovative, market-leading solutions such as PIX and D4Sign Score, integrating data from the brazilian government’s gov.br platform. Recognizing their clients’ need to save time and automate processes, they expanded their platform’s scope to include API solutions, templates, and forms. Already a reference in the sector for its focus on security and automation, D4Sign identified another improvement opportunity, this time in document management. This led to the launch of their latest product, D4Sign.AI, a generative artificial intelligence ecosystem that optimizes contract signing by up to 80% and enhances document management, making the process seven times faster than manual methods.

Now, platform users benefit from AI that reads documents and highlights key points, providing a detailed summary, including identification of parties, contract subject matter, pricing, and payment terms. Users can also interact with the AI through a chat interface, asking document-related questions to expedite the signing process. Another recent innovation in the platform's AI ecosystem was the creation of Brazil's first Big Data tool focused on documents and contracts. This tool leverages information contained in these materials to generate relevant insights and identify risks through preliminary analysis, enabling companies to make more accurate and informed decisions.

In the picture: Alessio Mainardi for Zucchetti (center), and from left to right: Nahim Silva, Rafael Figueiredo, Rodrigo Figueiredo and Bruno Kawakami for D4Sign.