LG Lugar de Gente, a cloud-based HR Tech software company covering everything from recruitment, training, and payroll to job, salary, and benefits management, is once again driving one of the pipelines that helped consolidate its portfolio focused on human resources .
In another step towards consolidating its position as a one-stop shop in the sector, the company signed a contract this Wednesday, January 7th, to acquire Moavi, a company that owns a work schedule management platform for the retail sector, based on the application of artificial intelligence (AI).
With the transaction, whose financial terms were not disclosed, LG lugar de gente takes control of Moavi – the agreement includes an option to purchase 100% of the company in the future. The company's six partners, including founder and CEO Victor José Guerra, remain in charge of operations.
“Considering only the large retailer market, the revenue capture potential of this solution is over R$120 million,” says Felipe Azevedo , CEO of LG lugar de gente, to NeoFeed . “But, taking other sectors into account, we are talking about an addressable market of R$4.6 billion.”
LG Lugar de Gente's seventh acquisition – and, according to Azevedo, the largest in the company's history – the purchase of Moavi breaks a three-year "silence" in this non-profit arena. It was precisely at the beginning of this hiatus that the two parties came together.
“We came across Moavi through a referral from a market player, but they were still relatively small and had some growth challenges,” says Luigi Pizzichemi, director of mergers and acquisitions at LG. “But we decided to closely observe the company's development.”
This courtship began to get more serious at the end of 2024, with the signing of a non-binding proposal and the promise of delivering certain goals in 2025, which has now resulted in the conclusion of the deal. "It was three years of close collaboration and a few months of negotiation," says Pizzichemi.
In addition to some of the figures recorded during this period – Moavi's revenue, for example, grew 85% in the last twelve months – and the billion-dollar addressable market ahead, what caught attention was the model proposed by the company and its fit with LG's portfolio and customer base.
Founded in 2017, Moavi analyzes retailers' sales history and the allocation of frontline teams to obtain these figures. Based on this data and the use of AI, it proposes weekly schedules, with specific days and times, to distribute teams more efficiently, as well as monitor their performance.
“We already work with this workforce using time and attendance and payroll systems,” says Pizzichemi. “And now, we will be able to integrate the management of these teams so that these clients have more predictability and are more efficient, reducing unnecessary overtime and labor lawsuits.”
With its model, Moavi serves 60 clients, including names like Pague Menos, DPSP, Carrefour, Assaí, GPA, and Marisa. LG's portfolio, in turn, has more than 2,200 clients, of which more than 500 are retailers – less than 10% of them use the acquired company's tools.
“We’ve mapped out the potential for an additional R$40 million in recurring revenue for Moavi just from our existing customer base,” says Azevedo. “And that starts in retail, but we’re already looking at other segments.”
Beyond retail
Alongside this strong focus on cross-selling among retail clients, LG and Moavi are already aiming to extend this portfolio to sectors such as facilities management, call centers, hospitality, and aviation over the next four years. The healthcare segment will be the first to embark on this new path, still in 2026.
At the same time, LG lugar de gente, which closed 2025 with revenue of over R$400 million and EBITDA exceeding R$100 million, is already projecting the impact of the Moavi acquisition on its balance sheet.
“We will surpass R$ 500 million in revenue this year, with an EBITDA of R$ 140 million,” emphasizes Azevedo. “And, in that last line, Moavi will have a contribution of approximately R$ 14 million.”
While pursuing these numbers, LG remains active in the M&A market. This includes, of course, human resources software companies and those that interact with this area, as well as operations more focused on small and medium-sized enterprises.
“At the end of the day, we look at the equation margin versus price paid versus growth,” observes Pizzichemi. “If that equation makes sense, we will allocate resources. Otherwise, we will find new ways to generate organic growth.”
According to Azevedo, any potential new deals will be financed with existing cash and balance sheet resources. "If, eventually, an acquisition worth R$1 billion comes along, then we might need new partners or a new funding round with our investors," he says, referring to the asset management firms HIG Capital and HIX Capital.
In April 2025, NeoFeed learned from market sources that the asset manager hired Bank of America with a mandate to find a buyer for its stake, but that this could also evolve into a fundraising effort to grow through M&As. Azevedo denies that HIG Capital would be willing to sell its stake in the operation.
“We achieved R$100 million in EBITDA in 2025 and will achieve R$140 million in 2026. We are increasing the company's value by 40% in one year,” he says. “So, today, it is not in our shareholders' best interest to exit.”
