Vivo Ventures Invests in Inner AI, Valued Above 500 Million Reais
Vivo Ventures, the corporate venture fund of Brazilian telecom Vivo, is investing in Inner AI, the São Paulo startup behind Squad.com, a platform that offers virtual agent teams for sales, marketing, finance and contract review, O Globo’s Capital blog reported on October 19. The cheque size was not disclosed, but the deal valued Inner AI at more than 500 million reais.
Inner AI, founded by Pedro Salles, had already raised 42 million reais with Canary and ONEVC among its shareholders before Vivo Ventures joined. Phillip Trauer, who directs Vivo Ventures and Wayra Brasil, said the goal is to build together and accelerate transformation in the Brazilian market, not only to write a cheque.
The companies are also studying a commercial partnership that would use Vivo’s network of about 1,800 stores, more than 5,000 salespeople and 1.8 million small and medium business customers to distribute Squad.com. One option under discussion is to add the tool to Vivo’s digital-services portfolio, though the revenue share is not settled. Early in 2027 a Squad.com bus is to travel the BR-116 highway with stops at Vivo stores, starting in three still-unnamed south-eastern cities, echoing the physical Squad store opened on Avenida Paulista in April.
What it means in practice
The deal is a distribution bet as much as a venture bet. Brazilian SMEs already experiment with assistants, as tracked in coverage of small firms adopting drafting assistants and the MIT SMR–TOTVS finding that 80 percent of firms use AI but only 7 percent put it at the core. Putting agents inside a national telecom channel could shrink that gap if store staff can explain the product clearly.
Vivo Ventures has put 242 million reais into 14 startups since 2022 and led Brazilian corporate-venture deal count between mid-2025 and mid-2026, according to Global Corporate Venturing and ApexBrasil figures cited by the blog. That track record will be tested by whether Squad.com actually converts store traffic into paying SME teams.
What to watch: the commercial terms with Vivo, which south-eastern cities host the first bus stops, and whether Inner AI’s valuation holds once distribution metrics appear.