Brazilian financial infrastructure provider Celcoin has acquired Vulkan Labs, a startup that specializes in AI-driven risk decision engines. The deal strengthens Celcoin’s fast-growing credit vertical, which the company expects to expand by more than 100 percent this year. With Vulkan’s technology and team integrated, Celcoin aims to position itself as a full-stack provider for the entire credit operations lifecycle, from onboarding to recovery.
Strategic Rationale for the Acquisition
Celcoin already operated what it describes as one of the most complete credit pipelines in the Brazilian market, serving a wide range of financial and non-financial institutions. By bringing Vulkan into the group, the company seeks to stay ahead of structural changes in the credit sector, where efficiency, personalization, and scale are becoming decisive. CEO and founder Marcelo França Corrêa highlights that combining Celcoin’s infrastructure with Vulkan’s decision tools is intended to accelerate innovation and reinforce the company’s value proposition for partners.
Vulkan’s Decision Engine and Talent
At the core of the transaction is Vulkan’s proprietary no-code decision engine, designed to orchestrate multiple data sources and automate risk and credit decisions in real time. The platform enables clients to configure customized workflows, monitor portfolios, and access advanced analytics dashboards without heavy engineering dependencies. Vulkan’s entire team will join Celcoin, with co-founders Bruno Sztutman, previously at C6 Bank, and Antonio Pedro Vieira, with experience at Nubank and C6, stepping into leadership roles within the expanded credit operation.
Toward a Modular End-to-End Credit Pipeline
Celcoin’s credit stack already covered the full credit lifecycle, including background checks, anti-fraud controls, decisioning, simulations, proposals, issuance of collateralized instruments, digital signatures, assignment and endorsement of receivables, and both ordinary and specialized debt collection. Integrating Vulkan’s engine adds a marketplace of dozens of external integrations, such as Open Finance data, SCR, Serasa, and other credit bureaus. This combination is expected to strengthen use cases across risk analysis, fraud prevention, regulatory compliance, and digital onboarding, while giving clients more flexibility in how they structure and scale their credit products.
Market Consolidation and Future Outlook
The deal represents Celcoin’s sixth M&A transaction in the last two years, underscoring an aggressive consolidation strategy in Brazil’s financial infrastructure market. Strategy and M&A executive director Sergio Meirelles notes that Vulkan’s technology is not limited to credit and can be extended to other decision-intensive workflows over time. Today, Celcoin’s credit vertical serves more than 250 partners, including major retailers and financial brands such as Casas Bahia, Americanas, Pernambucanas, Super Sim, Robbin, Jeitto, Cielo, and Neon, in addition to asset managers and companies from multiple industries.
By acquiring Vulkan Labs, Celcoin is betting that advanced decision automation and AI-powered risk assessment will be central to the next phase of credit innovation in Brazil. The combination of Celcoin’s regulatory and technological infrastructure with Vulkan’s no-code decision engine and experienced founders is designed to offer institutions a more agile, data-rich, and modular alternative to traditional credit systems. If the integration delivers as planned, Celcoin will be better positioned to scale its credit vertical, expand into adjacent use cases, and reinforce its role as a key infrastructure player for the Brazilian financial ecosystem.