Cielo
“Can Brazil's incumbent acquirer defend share against fintech challengers by becoming a full merchant services platform?”
Founded1995
HQBarueri, São Paulo, Brazil
IndustryInfrastructure / Payments
The story
Cielo is Brazil's largest card acquirer, founded in 1995 as a JV of Banco do Brasil and Bradesco. Originally focused on card-present acquiring via 'maquininhas', it expanded into e-commerce (Cielo e-Commerce / Braspag gateway), Pix acceptance, and merchant credit. Under intense competition from Stone, PagSeguro and Rede, it pivoted toward broader merchant services — direct lending, FX conversion, payment links, split payments — to defend margin.
Last 12 months
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Product timeline
1995
Founded as Companhia Brasileira de Meios de Pagamento, joint venture between Banco do Brasil and Bradesco.· founding
2009
Rebranded as Cielo and IPO on B3.· ipo
2016
Began direct credit issuance to merchants from own balance sheet.· lending
2021
Launched Cielo Receba Mais FIDC with BNDES (R$529.4M) for MSME credit.· lending
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Cielo
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
5 layers disclosed in Cielo’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Cielo (self-operated acquirer)Cielo e-Commerce (self-operated)Braspag Gateway (self-operated)Cielo Checkout (self-operated)Cielo Link de Pagamento (self-operated)Cielo Tap (self-operated)Tap to Pay on iPhone (self-operated)
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Lending
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting
in the full report
Accounting gap: minor
8 more providers across 4 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.