Raphael Bohne
Research expert covering professional services
Consulting industry in Brazil - statistics & facts
With a population of roughly 210 million people, Brazil has one of the largest markets for professional services in Latin America. In the last years, the Brazilian service industry has been fueled by the increase in innovative fintech companies together with a growing consumers market. Despite recent economic tribulations caused by the COVID-19 crisis, fintech companies such as Nubank grew its customer base from around 1.3 million in 2016 to almost 75 million in 2022. Nevertheless, this increasing customer base could not be translated into increasing revenues since Nubank still recorded a negative income of approximately 305 million Brazilian reals in 2020. Inevitably, consulting companies play an important role in assisting such companies, and further supporting the growth of the Brazilian service industry through their guidance and expertise.
The consulting market in Brazil is relatively small but very dynamic
Globally speaking, the Brazilian consulting industry has accounted for a small fraction of the global consulting market. In 2020, Brazil’s share of this 130 billion U.S. dollar market amounted to less than one percent as a share of the worldwide consulting market. Regardless of this, the industry was still responsible for over 100,000 full-time and part-time consulting employees in Brazil. Despite the negative prognoses, the Brazilian consulting markets together with other adjacent markets also reported positive effects due to the COVID-19 crisis: Over 30 percent of the consulting companies became more innovative, and 20 percent claimed that their decision-making process was improved.The COVID-19 crisis could harm the revenues from this growing industry
As with other sectors, the COVID-19 crisis had devastating impacts on the development of this market in Brazil. For instance, around 50 percent of consulting clients in Brazil and other neighboring countries claimed that sales had declined significantly as a result of COVID-19, while almost 30 percent declared having to furlough many employees. Given their economic vulnerability and decreasing revenues, this situation could also force the 15 gazelle consulting companies in Brazil to close their doors. Well-established consulting companies would also not be exempt from the repercussions of this crisis. If this is the case, EY like other big consulting companies in Brazil, would be obliged to reduce its 5,700 strong workforce.
