Itaú Unibanco agrees to acquire AI startup NeoSpace for BRL 2.925B, about $580M

Itaú Unibanco has signed a share purchase agreement to acquire all shares of NeoSpace A.I. Technologies, a Brazilian AI startup, for BRL 2.925 billion, about $580 million. Itaú announced the deal on 26 October in a material fact notice. Part of the price is paid at closing and the rest is deferred over five years, subject to conditions. Closing needs approval from the antitrust authority CADE and the Central Bank of Brazil.

NeoSpace develops foundation models trained on large-scale datasets and has served Itaú for almost two years, building models on the bank's proprietary data. The work has produced results in credit, CRM and fraud prevention. The acquisition supports ia.i, Itaú's generative AI assistant. NeoSpace keeps its autonomous management and team, and founder Bruno Pierobon stays as CEO.

The read: Itaú is moving from buying AI models as a service to owning the supplier.