Group update

Formerly a Prosus Ventures investment, Advolve will now support iFood’s plans to scale its AI-driven Ads business 5x by 2030

iFood, a technology company and the leading delivery platform in Latin America, today announced the acquisition of Advolve, a Brazilian company specializing in artificial intelligence for performance marketing and advertising. The acquisition reinforces iFood’s goal of accelerating and optimizing solutions offered through its Ads vertical - part of their ‘retail media’ strategy - and marks another step in Prosus’s strategy as a global technology company and the power behind the world’s leading lifestyle ecommerce brands across Latin America, Europe and India.

iFood launched its Ads division in 2021 to develop ad solutions for restaurants and brands with i app advertising. Since then, the platform has expanded and it now combines its own ad solutions with partnerships across major external networks to connect restaurants and brands with customers. More than 230 companies have advertised on iFood across restaurant, supermarket, pharmacy, and pet shop categories. Top advertisers have grown their sales by more than 40%, and according to eMarketer, iFood was one of the fastest-growing media revenue companies in the world in 2024.

With this acquisition of Advolve, iFood is well positioned to expand its retail driven ads strategy further and strengthen its role as a more efficient and comprehensive bridge between brands and consumers.

AI-generated ads are enhancing the shopping journey, from discovery to buying

With 60 million consumers per month and clear visibility into consumer intent, iFood is well-positioned to expand its Ads vertical. Integrating Advolve’s AI — which instantly generates and optimizes creative assets – enables brands on the iFood platform to better connect with consumers in a more precise way, resulting in more relevant ads, better offers, and messaging that aligns more closely with each consumer. Advolve does this by generating creative variations, testing them instantly, learning from performance signals, and optimizing in real time. Work that previously took teams days or weeks now happens in minutes.

“Advolve will enhance our Ads vertical with AI across the entire campaign journey. Like iFood, the startup has technology at its core, and both share the same vision of being AI-driven companies,” said Sam James, iFood’s VP of Ads. “Strengthening Ads for brands and the consumer goods industry is aligned with how we see iFood’s growth across multiple fronts — always connected to our broader ecosystem. With this acquisition, the platform becomes even more relevant for advertisers, while also delivering more personalized and contextual offers to consumers.”

Building a next-generation retail media platform in Latin America

Prosus Ventures first invested in Advolve in February 2025. This acquisition showcases Prosus’s flywheel model, identifying frontier innovation through Prosus Ventures, proving it within category leaders, and scaling it across its global ecosystem.

After investing, Prosus Ventures connected Advolve with portfolio leaders like iFood to validate the technology in real operating environments. Pilots delivered strong results, including more than 4x incremental sales for brands, leading iFood to acquire the startup.The founders — João Sobreira, João Paulo Martins, and Djany Veiga — and the full team will remain. Advolve and iFood are now combining their strengths to build a retail media platform rooted in AI and real-time consumer behavior.

“Advolve and iFood together are becoming an increasingly powerful media vehicle, helping brands and agencies reach consumers more effectively,” said Sobreira. “With iFood, we’re combining technology and AI — the core of both companies — with a massive, recurring audience that orders food, groceries, pharmacy items, and convenience products every day. That everyday relevance is what makes retail media so powerful.”