iFood Benefícios, the corporate-benefits arm of Brazilian food delivery company iFood, has signed an agreement to acquire all of Caju, a São Paulo startup that sells meal, food and flexible benefits cards together with expense and HR-management software. The deal was announced on October 20, 2026.
The companies did not disclose the price. Brazilian business outlet NeoFeed reported that iFood is paying more than R$1.2 billion (about $224 million) for 100% of Caju, while Startups.com.br, citing people familiar with the matter, put the figure at about R$1 billion in cash. Neither number was confirmed by the companies.
The acquisition still needs approval from CADE, Brazil's competition authority, which has been notified, and then from the Central Bank of Brazil. Until the deal closes, the two businesses will keep operating independently, and iFood said nothing changes for clients, employees or partners in the meantime. The release did not say whether the Caju brand will be kept after closing.
What Caju built
Caju was founded in 2020 by Eduardo Del Giglio, its chief executive, and Renan Mendes. It offers companies a single Visa-branded card through which employees receive benefits such as meal and food allowances, along with tools for managing expenses and HR processes.
According to iFood, Caju serves more than 70,000 client companies and more than 1.3 million users, and its card is accepted at more than 12 million merchants. The startup has more than 700 employees, works remote-first and is headquartered in São Paulo.
NeoFeed reported that both founders have incentives to stay and are expected to continue running the business after the deal closes.
Why iFood is buying
iFood Benefícios has about 65,000 client companies and 1.7 million users, and its benefit cards are accepted at more than 11 million physical merchants and more than 500,000 stores inside the iFood app. Adding Caju gives the combined business about 135,000 client companies and about 3 million users before accounting for overlap.
Arthur Freitas, chief executive of iFood Benefícios, framed the deal around lowering costs for restaurants and workers. In Portuguese-language remarks in the release, he argued that lower transaction costs leave merchants with more margin. Del Giglio said in the same release that the combination aims to offer the best ecosystem for HR teams and the best product for employees.
The deal also ends a long courtship. NeoFeed reported that an earlier approach to Caju did not produce a deal, after which iFood held talks in 2025 to buy Alelo, one of the large incumbents, in a deal reported at about R$5.5 billion. Those talks stalled after the government changed the rules of the market, and iFood returned to Caju.
The founders and the funding
Startups.com.br lists three funding rounds for Caju: R$13 million in 2020 with Valor Capital and Canary, R$45 million in 2021 with Valor Capital and Caravela, and $25 million in August 2022. NeoFeed reported that the 2022 round was led by K1 Investment Management, with Valor Capital Group, Caravela Capital, Clocktower Ventures and FJ Labs taking part.
NeoFeed named Volpe Capital, Caravela Capital, Valor Capital Group, Canary and K1 Investment Management among the investors selling their stakes. Neither company disclosed Caju's total funding or its last valuation.
A market reshaped by new rules
Brazil's benefits market moves about R$150 billion (about $28 billion) a year and serves more than 22 million workers at about 470,000 companies enrolled in PAT, the federal worker meal programme, according to figures cited in coverage of the deal. Four incumbents, Ticket, Alelo, Pluxee and VR, hold more than 80% of it.
New PAT rules cap the fees that benefit providers can charge merchants at 3.6%, a change that has squeezed incumbents' economics and opened room for digital players with lower costs. The Caju deal is the second consolidation move in the segment in weeks: C6 Bank bought benefits startup Alymente in early September.
For iFood, which already processes restaurant orders across Brazil, owning both the benefit card and the delivery app lets it sit on both sides of a meal-voucher transaction. For Caju's investors, the sale is an exit roughly six years after the company was founded.
