2014 doesn’t seem like a long time ago, but the technology was very different back then. AI was just science fiction, the internet was much slower — and retail software was expensive and unnecessarily complex. This scenario led to ConnectPlug’s creation by computer engineer Rafael Hasson.
Hasson, who has worked with software development since he was 14 years old, witnessed his family’s struggles with software in the food service segment.
The system was extremely expensive, complicated to use, and didn’t provide adequate support for their customers. The situation eventually became unbearable when Hasson’s family opened a new store — and the system they used charged a prohibitive amount to integrate inventory and reporting between the two stores.
This motivated Hasson to start ConnectPlug, a company that would offer affordable and effective solutions to overcome the challenges faced by the food service segment.
He invited his friends, Bernardo Marques and Edson Procópio, to join him in this mission — and develop a software that would solve the problems they identified in the competition once and for all. It took an year of intense dedication to research and development, until the team realized their solution was adequate for all retail segments. And so, ConnectPlug was first released in 2015.
Impressive growth, from the start
From this moment on, the new company experienced remarkable growth. From its first 50 clients in 2015, it grew to 200 in the following year and then grew fivefold, achieving the 1000-client milestone in 2017. In less than a decade, ConnectPlug has positively impacted more than 85 thousand businesses all over Brazil.
ConnectPlug started with two of the most important tech-solutions for their customers: POS (point of sale) technology and ERP (Enterprise Resources Planning) systems, both tailor-made for retail and food service businesses. But in the following years, the portfolio expanded a lot, to include new technologies such as:
- Self-service automation, with tablets and totems that allow the customers to place their own orders
- KDS (Kitchen Display Systems), for real-time communication between the kitchen and the waiters.
- Table and consumption control, for easy management of orders and bills.
- Real-time management app for smartphones.
- Fiscal and financial management systems for retail.
- Delivery hub, integrating orders received by phone, chat or any app.
Nowadays, ConnectPlug is a complete ecosystem with affordable and effective solutions for stores and restaurants of any size or segment. Since2021, it has been a part of LWSA (Locaweb Company), one of the most renowned tech companies in Brazil.
