Zup is now hoping to expand into the UK as well as other European nations, in a bid to break out of its domestic market, where hyperinflation, high interest rates and currency volatility are hurting trade.

“The real has devalued massively, so it’s much better to sell in dollars and pounds these days,” Almeida says. From an all-time high of 4.18 in September last year, the dollar is now worth 3.7 reals. “Companies that export are fine but those importing are really struggling,” he says.

The list of endemic issues goes on. “Brazil has always depended on commodities and now, with the value of steel and oil going down, there’s a real economic crisis,” he says. “There’s also the issue of corruption, which is widespread across the country.”

Over the past year, Brazilian authorities have been uncovering a network of corruption that centres on the oil giant Petrobras but extends “even to local governments in the smallest cities in Brazil,” according to Almeida.

It is alleged that price fixing, money laundering, collusion and bribery took place at Petrobras. Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is currently being investigated over the scandal.

“We have always done business with private companies,” says Almeida. “In future, when they clean up the government, I hope we will do business.”