Avenue's founder and CEO, Roberto Lee, likes to refer to the " Brazilian patrimonial diaspora ," a path, in his view, of no return, leading offshore investments to firmly establish themselves in local portfolios.
After growing its retail operation and reaching over 1 million customers, Avenue is betting on another diaspora and launching an institutional vertical to serve Brazilian companies, asset managers, and wealth managers operating in the United States.
The expectation is that the new operation will begin in February 2026 in a pilot phase and will progress with the approximately 250 partner asset managers with whom the firm already has relationships and who operate internationally.
The addressable market mapped by Avenue, which is now controlled by Itaú Unibanco, is expected to generate approximately US$100 million in annual revenue.
“Our goal is to offer companies the same agile, transparent, and reliable experience that has solidified our brand among individuals, now adapted to the needs of the institutional audience,” says Alexandre Artmann, COO of Avenue, to NeoFeed .
To lead this new project, Avenue brought in Caio Azevedo, a professional with over 20 years of experience in the market, 13 of which were at XP , where he served as CEO of XP US from 2020 to 2022. More recently, Azevedo was undertaking the development of an exchange at a company called BEE4, a tokenized stock offering marketplace focused on SMEs.
Azevedo will assume the role of partner and institutional director, and will have the support of Alexandre Artmann, one of the pioneers in opening this market in Brazil. The new executive will lead a team of six people who will operate in three product lines: equities, bonds/private credit, and options and futures.
To that end, Avenue will have a dedicated desk, available 24 hours a day, with customized service and professionals specialized in each area, ready to support operations in different time zones and markets.
Alexandre Artmann (left) and Caio Azevendo, from Avenue CPT_CLS_0
“We understand that we will be competing with foreign brokers, who offer a wide range of products and services, but not something personalized. And the fact that we know the Brazilian market and its needs well is a key differentiator,” says Azevedo.
The institutional brokerage will use the retail brokerage's infrastructure, especially the compliance and back-office areas. The chosen operating model is "execution only," which, unlike a full broker, does not offer all services such as analysis and investment banking , but focuses on trading .
Avenue had already been connecting asset managers to the international market through the Avenue Fund Hub , the infrastructure created to allow Brazilian asset managers to sell offshore asset management products, as reported by NeoFeed . A natural next step would also be to help execute their strategies through the brokerage firm.
The Brazilian asset management market is one of the largest in the world. According to Anbima, the Brazilian institutional industry has over a thousand asset managers and manages approximately R$ 10 trillion, with 20% to 30% of that amount already allocated abroad. The expectation is that this percentage will continue to increase over the years.
“In 10 years, we will no longer have large funds that don't have most of their risk abroad. With the B3 (Brazilian stock exchange) becoming increasingly depleted and even large Brazilian companies listing in the US, those who don't will be left behind,” says Artmann.
