Cielo is a financial services company that enables payment methods and business solutions for businesses in an intelligent way. The company operates with technological solutions to carry out the acquisition of sales in e-commerce and in the traditional channel for other companies and retailers. In other words, it performs the capture, transmission, and financial settlement of transactions with credit and debit cards from various brands.

The Company operates with a business model that has some important characteristics for its growth strategy and strengthening in this market:

• Low investment requirement

• Application of innovative technologies and strategies

• Large base of loyal customers

• Great brand recognition in the country

Cielo's operations

The company is considered the market leader when it comes to processing and settling payment operations. To achieve this, it has around 1.4 million active clients, ranging from individual entrepreneurs to large retailers, and is present in more than 5,500 Brazilian cities. Incredibly, Cielo operates on a very strong and stable technological and operational basis, allowing it to support nearly 6,000 sales per second, being capable of handling 8 times the volume of transactions of Brazilian e-commerce.

Its operational structure can be related to the great technological capacity that Cielo uses to process colossal amounts of data. In short, the company utilizes innovative technologies such as machine learning and data science. In the physical realm, Cielo offers various models of card machines, with exclusive functionalities such as:

• Mobile recharge

• Promotion control

• Currency converter

Cielo business model

Cielo's main service allows payments via credit and debit cards made through instruments from over 80 brands, including those of major companies like Visa, Mastercard, Elo, Hiper and American Express.

Moreover, it has an expanded portfolio of card machines offering not only the ideal model but also a range of services and complete solutions for clients to better manage their business. Thus, it offers the following types of card machines to retailers:

• POS models: Mini, Zip, Mobile, and Flash

• Smart Terminals: LIO, LIO+

Cielo implements compatible solutions in each specific model for sales both in traditional retail and in the e-commerce of each enterprise, enabling payment via:

• Link

• Virtual store

• QR Code

• Cielo check-out

• API e-commerce

In addition, it offers services that facilitate clients' businesses and prevent or minimize any type of problem with sales, providing:

• Quick maintenance

• Cielo App

• Online chat

• 24-hour support

• Physical stores

More than that, the company has an anti-fraud system and the Cielo Store the app store of Cielo LIO so that its clients can customize their business with innovative features. Last but not least, it offers the services of Cielo Farol, which provides entrepreneurs with a series of relevant information so they can better understand their business and know how much they sell in relation to businesses of the same size, sector, and region as their establishment.

The Company also allows knowing the income profile and purchasing behavior of end consumers, comparing it with the average of similar businesses and comparing revenue with that of similar businesses in order to set growth targets for those who use Cielo Farol's services.

The history of Cielo takes us back to 1995, when it was founded from a joint venture between Visa International, Bradesco, Banco do Brasil, Banco Real, and the now-closed Banco Nacional, thus forming VisaNet Brasil. Initially, the newly created company aimed to solve the process of capture, transmission, and financial settlement in order to free those banking institutions to focus solely on card issuance and credit granting.

In the first years of operation, payments made through its system were only allowed if they were from the Visa brand. In other words, this brand had a monopoly on payments processed by VisaNet.

The name Cielo became established in 2009, establishing the new brand of the Company. Shortly thereafter, in 2010, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) ended that exclusivity, allowing the Company's card machines to accept other brands such as Mastercard and Diners.

To give an idea, Cielo at that time had a high market share in the Brazilian acquiring market, while still dominating the card machine market in Brazil without major competitors.

In 2012, it reinforced its commitment to technological innovation and formed a partnership with CyberSource, which provided payment management solutions. Consequently, Cielo launched a fraud prevention platform for e-commerce. More than that, in the same year it acquired the American Merchant e-Solutions (MeS) for US$ 670 million, to increase the offering of online and e-commerce solutions.

In 2014, the Company achieved a leadership position in the market, as it had more than 1.6 million clients spread across 5,500 municipalities in all regions of the country.

In 2019, Cielo innovated once again by launching the platform Cielo Pay. Basically, it provided an app to group various functionalities in the payment sector. As a result, it not only started to minimize the need for card machines but also allowed retailers to sell their products via QR Code on mobile or by issuing boletos.

Finally, in 2020, Cielo announced a partnership with the American Facebook, to launch a model for payments and financial transactions that can be made at any time through the app WhatsApp, which in Brazil already had around 120 million individual users at the time.