iFood Pago bets on credit to expand partner business
iFood Pago, iFood's financial arm aimed at small and medium-sized companies, surpassed the R$3 billion mark in credit granted in Brazil since the beginning of operation. Between April and December 2025 alone, R$1.3 billion were disbursed to restaurant partners on the platform.
According to data released by the company, the operation recorded a 55% growth in credit granting when comparing the first quarter of this year with the fourth quarter of 2025.
The expectation for 2026 is to accelerate the pace even further, with growth forecast between 50% and 60% and disbursement of more than R$2 billion throughout the year.
"Restaurant entrepreneurs generally do not have access to traditional lines of credit. Many do not even consider this possibility. What we are offering is credit as an investment, allowing them to accelerate the expansion of the business", says the CEO of iFood Pago, Bruno Henriques, in an exclusive interview with CNN Money.
According to the executive, around 63% of restaurants that use the platform's credit did not have prior access to financing from other financial institutions.
According to Henriques, the platform's difference lies in the intensive use of data generated within the delivery ecosystem for risk modeling.
"We know the behavior of the restaurant, the recurrence of customers and the growth potential of that business. This allows us to grant credit with more security", said the executive.
The platform's CEO states that the fintech structured a specialized risk team made up of financial market professionals and implemented internal committees to approve new concession models.
In addition, the company adopts a gradual testing model before expanding new lines of credit to the entire partner base.
"We started small, testing in small groups of restaurants and evaluating default and credit response before expanding the operation", he explained.
The pre-approved iFood Pago offer already exceeds R$7 billion, although the amount actually used depends on establishments' adherence to the available offers.
In addition to credit, the iFood Pago digital account ended December 2025 with 166 thousand active customers, considering users who made some transactions in the month, after opening 88 thousand new accounts between April and December last year.
Revenue growth boosted Anthropic, says expert | MONEY NEWS
The so-called "principality", an indicator that measures the use of the account as the partner's main financial relationship, reached 12%, an increase of 60% compared to the beginning of the cycle.
Currently, the operation moves more than R$4 billion per month in transactions within the iFood Pago financial ecosystem, including Pix and bank slips, and totals almost 2 million monthly payments. The volume traded grew by around 60% year-on-year.
According to Henriques, the credit offered by iFood Pago has two main objectives: financing expansion and serving as working capital in times of seasonality in the food sector.
"The restaurant is a tight and seasonal business. In periods like the end of the year, many business owners need to deal with holiday payments, thirteenth payments and a drop in demand. Credit helps the partner to go through this period in a healthier way", he stated.
The average ticket for operations varies depending on the size and history of the restaurant within the platform. According to the executive, there are everything from small loans of R$10,000 to R$20,000 to purchase equipment, to operations exceeding R$1 million aimed at opening new units.
Despite the expansion of the financial front, the CEO reinforced that delivery continues to be iFood's main business and that the financial arm works as a lever to boost the growth of partners within the marketplace.
"iFood Pago was born coupled with delivery. The more the restaurant grows, the more the marketplace grows too. There is a very strong alignment of incentives", he said.
73% of Brazil's exports to the EU are concentrated in 5 destinations
Source: CNN