When entrepreneur Iuri Lenzi founded Zinz in January 2020, certainly did not expect that, three months later, a pandemic (the one of covid-19) would spread across the planet and trigger the alert signal in businesses. Because the company, currently a platform that facilitates the lives of franchisees in the execution of works and renovations, not only has it overcome this moment of global turbulence but it also reaches its four years of life in expansion
"We must close 2024 with more than R$ 6 million in works", says the founder and CEO of Zinz. This amount represents one third (33,3%) more than what was recorded in 2023, of the order of R$ 4,5 million, and more than eight times the value of 2022 (R$ 700 thousand). "And remember that", in the first year, "we ended up not earning practically anything", remind him. Came 2021, still with many difficulties, until in 2022 the decision to direct the platform towards the franchise segment gave a new boost to Zinz
Today, Zinz operates as a marketplace that connects franchisees to service providers for the execution of works and renovations of franchise stores. The focus is on medium-sized projects. "We mediate from end to end of the work", from the budget to the final payment. Payments are made to the service provider only after the services are approved by the client himself, explains Lenzi (check the step-by-step in the box at the end of this article)
In this operation intermediated by Zinz, in addition to the franchised retailers, who are the clients of the platform, other actors are the franchising companies and the service providers for construction and renovations. Franchisors (or "finders") use the platform as a referral to franchisees, so that you can budget and hire the works. Service providers are acting by quoting, in Zinz, budgets to meet the requests of the franchisees
The CEO of Zinz details: "The franchisor does not pay anything to Zinz". Our company is compensated by a sales commission from the provider.The franchisee also has no usage cost.In addition, she uses Zinz as a competitive differentiator, in addition to also using it as project management for its franchisees – this way they know exactly the status of the work, remotely. Service providers have their profile on the Zinz platform and can receive customer reviews as they carry out projects
As an indicator of the viability and sustainability of the business, Zinz works with the calculation that the franchise market has 4 thousand brands, being around 3,8 thousand of them are from physical stores. That is to say, establishments that need renovations and repairs to meet the architectural standards and visual identity established by the franchisors. "And the trend is that the franchise market will continue to expand", projects the CEO
Furthermore, it is estimated that on average, per year, these franchises opened five other stores, totaling a market of 19 thousand new stores per year. Some grow, others not, but a conservative calculation points to this number, punctuate, reiterating that these expansions require, therefore, for new works.
That's why, the company works with an ambitious goal: to reach 2030 achieving the mark of 1 million square meters renovated through the intermediation of the platform. Currently, this number is in 10,5 thousand square meters.
What does Zinz do – and howCheck the step by step, 100% digital
- The customer enters the Zinz website and requests a quote, sending the architectural project of your store
- Zinz prepares a reference budget for the client, informing how much, on average, it will cost to carry out this renovation
- With the client's approval, Zinz requests service providers to prepare the budget
- On the Zinz platform, the construction companies can send their quotation. The client (franchisee) will have access to a comparison of each proposal
- The client chooses the construction company or contractor they wish to hire
- The customer selects the payment method and deposits that amount on the platform
- A Zinz reviews the values for the contracted service provider – this only when the client approves the services performed by the provider
