C6 Bank has acquired 100% of Alymente, a benefits startup founded by former Stone executives, to enter Brazil's R$150 billion employee benefits market. The acquisition will create C6 Benefícios, challenging the dominance of Ticket, Alelo, Pluxee and VR. Alymente serves over 100,000 beneficiaries across 1,200 companies, including Heineken and Nissan, offering a multi-benefit card covering meals, transport and telemedicine. The startup will be integrated into C6 Bank's business banking portfolio, which already includes digital accounts, credit and investments. C6 Bank, which has 42 million clients, recorded a net profit of R$1.25 billion in the first half of 2026, up 20% year-on-year. The transaction requires Central Bank approval, expected within two to three months. Alymente's 40-person team will join C6 Bank under founder André Purri's leadership.

BTG Pactual enters corporate benefits and intensifies dispute in a R$ 150 billion market. The bank announces its debut in the corporate benefits market with the launch of a card that combines meal and food vouchers and intensifies competition with major players such as Ticket and Alelo, and startups like Flash. Read the article summary A stage of intense movements in recent years, with the arrival of new players and changes in its regulatory framework, the corporate benefits market is gaining another heavyweight competitor. BTG Pactual announced on the morning of this Thursday, August 20, that it is entering the sector with the launch of the BTG Benefícios card, with the Mastercard flag and which combines food and meal vouchers. According to the bank, the card will have a wide acceptance network and will feature digital management for companies and human resources departments with an experience integrated into the BTG Pactual Banking app for users. "We want to simplify management for companies and, at the same time, offer employees a more practical and integrated everyday experience," said Marcelo Flora, partner and director at BTG Pactual, in a statement. In the statement, BTG noted that this platform will allow recharging, issuing physical and virtual cards, monitoring operations in real time, and integrating management with payroll systems. Follow Neofeed on social media and get more information. The bank also emphasized that, by bringing these routines together on a single platform, the proposal is to simplify processes, increase efficiency, and integrate benefits partners, offering companies more visibility and control in managing this area. For users, the card will be available in physical and virtual versions, and can be used for in-person and online purchases and through digital wallets. Through the app, it will be possible to activate the card, generate the virtual version, and track balance and transactions. BTG Pactual's move comes two days after C6 Bank announced that its debut in this space will be one of the next steps in its strategy for corporate clients in the second half of 2026. "The benefits segment is quite complementary to what we already offer to small and medium-sized companies. We will enter with this product fully integrated into our app and our card still this semester," said Marcelo Kalim, co-founder and CEO of C6 Bank, to NeoFeed, on Tuesday, August 18. The entry of C6 Bank and BTG Pactual makes competition even fiercer in a segment historically dominated by Ticket, Alelo, Pluxee (formerly Sodexo) and VR. All of them have major banks as partners. While Bradesco and Banco do Brasil have stakes in Alelo, Itaú holds a share in Ticket, and Santander in Pluxee. About seven years ago, however, this quartet began to see its dominance threatened by the arrival of startups willing to disrupt the sector. Founded in 2019, one of these "newcomers" is Flash, which on Wednesday, August 19, announced the raising of a Series D round of R$ 150 million, led by Battery Ventures and Kevin Efrusy, a partner at Accel Partners who became known for making one of the first investments in Facebook. With these resources, the startup, which had already raised more than R$ 800 million, plans to accelerate the thesis it has been building over the last three years, also centered on bringing together various HR routines on a single platform, including in areas such as people management and corporate expense management. In addition to Flash, the group of startups that began to "bother" the big four in the sector includes names like Swile and Caju. Subsequently, this trio was joined by other players that entered the segment, including iFood and PicPay. This competition also had chapters in the judicial sphere, from a lawsuit filed by the Brazilian Association of Worker Benefits Companies (ABBT). The entity alleged that these startups operated illegally under the Worker Food Program (PAT). With annual revenue of R$ 150 billion and covering a universe of approximately 22 million users, PAT is precisely the program that governs practices in the food voucher and meal voucher segments. The dispute between ABBT and the startups came to an end in March this year, when the São Paulo Court of Justice closed the imbroglio by ruling the association's unfair competition accusations groundless. The closing of the case did not mean, however, the end of battles on this front. Another dispute involves a process before the Administrative Council for Defense and Development (Cade) against iFood. The author of the action is again ABBT, which, among other points, accuses the platform of favoring iFood Benefícios, its offering in the segment, to the detriment of competitors. And curiously, Flash, a former target of the entity, recently requested its admission as a third interested party in the process. All this context also has as a backdrop a series of changes that have been sanctioned and implemented in recent years within the scope of PAT. Some of them began to take effect this year. In addition to establishing issues such as open arrangements and the limit on fees charged to restaurants at a cap of 3.6%, this new framework began to prohibit practices that were previously quite common in the sector, such as rebates. Related. In practice, rebates were discounts, on average, of 2% to 5%, granted by benefits companies to companies, particularly large ones, that contracted their services under PAT. Given this scenario, industry sources believe that this market will undergo a consolidation process. Some movements have even been rehearsed in this space, involving an incumbent and an entrant. About a year ago, iFood held advanced negotiations to buy Alelo, in a transaction estimated at the time at around R$ 5 billion. However, the deal was not concluded, among other issues, precisely because of the regulatory changes in PAT.