Liberating Retailers, Transforming Lives

May 2022

For the co-founders of Gira, the connection to fashion and apparel is rooted in family history. Lucas Chita witnessed firsthand the chaos that defined the garment seller’s life. His own grandmother, who lived in the countryside of Rio de Janeiro, faced an arduous commute to Brás to fulfill her inventory to resell in her hometown. Not only were those trips long and uncomfortable — eight hours each way — but they were also expensive.

Co-founder Vinicíus Fernandes was also connected to manufacturing through his family, which resold footwear in the countryside and suffered similar issues. In fact, this was the experience for virtually every seller in Brazil: exhausting trips, limited access to lines of credit, inability to scale, and a compounding cycle of poverty.

Drawing on their childhood experiences and studies they conducted in local marketplaces, Chita and Fernandes concluded that the problems of 20 years ago had not gone away. “All of those pain points had actually gotten bigger and bigger,” says Chita. “No one else had tried to connect all these dots.”

The pair decided to create Gira alongside their Co-founder,and CTO, Marco Korehisa. The company connects manufacturers to small- and medium-sized retailers via their trade platform, eliminating the pain points for merchants and allowing Gira to become the leader in Brazilian B2B e-commerce.

Chita has been deeply affected by the stories his customers share about the ways that Gira transformed their lives. He remembers an elderly woman who lived far away in northern Brazil and was stuck with local suppliers who would charge her more than she could afford. With Gira, she was finally able to make enough money to support herself. “You are freedom for me,” she said.

The desire to liberate merchants from inequitable and broken systems is what drives Chita, Fernandes, Korehisa and Gira forward

The desire to liberate merchants from inequitable and broken systems is what drives Chita, Fernandes, Korhisa and Gira forward, and comments like that help prove they’re succeeding. “It confirms to us that we’re doing it in the right way,” Chita says. “We’re on the right path to becoming the right wingperson for these customers, and helping them find a better financial situation.”