Juao Fortes

João Martinez Fortes Júnior is one of three founding partners of Cassis Capital, a São Paulo–based investment firm launched in 2011 by former partners of MasterSAF. He built his career over 30+ years across finance and enterprise software, with earlier roles at Arthur Andersen, Bankers Trust and Planibanc before joining MasterSAF, the fiscal/tax software company that was sold to Thomson Reuters in 2011. His academic background is in Accounting Sciences with a specialization in corporate finance, and his professional specialty is mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and strategic management.

At Cassis Capital, Fortes works alongside co-founders Cesar Augusto Pinela (CEO, ~30 years in software and services) and Jander Sousa Martins (~40 years in IT, MasterSAF founder). The firm positions itself as "a company of entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs," contributing not only capital but strategic guidance through committees covering innovation, market strategy, corporate governance and team development. Its core playbook has been acquiring and consolidating Brazilian fiscal/tax and foreign-trade software companies, then driving synergies and exits.

Fortes serves (or has served) as chairman/president of the board of several Cassis-affiliated software companies, including Taxweb, New Soft Intelligence (NSI eComex), GETT and JExperts (Jexpert). Beyond the Cassis portfolio, he has held independent board or audit-committee seats at publicly traded Brazilian companies, including Raia Drogasil, Hypera (formerly Hypermarcas), Coteminas, Springs Global and Santanense de Tecidos — signaling a governance-focused profile more typical of a private-equity/holding operator than a classic seed angel.

• Invests in and consolidates B2B enterprise software companies, concentrated in fiscal/tax, foreign-trade (comex) and compliance software — the founders' domain of expertise from MasterSAF.
• Pursues a buy-and-build / consolidation strategy: acquiring multiple complementary companies (e.g., Bysoft-NSI, Taxweb, JExperts) and unifying them to "increase synergies and cross-selling across the different companies' solutions."
• Backs businesses aiming for "accelerated sustainable growth" — favoring companies with real revenue and margin expansion (the consolidated group grew revenues ~16% YoY with net margins rising to ~18%, per 2016 reporting).
• Adds value beyond capital via operating and governance committees (innovation, market strategy, corporate governance, team development), reflecting Fortes's M&A and board-governance background.
• Track record oriented toward clear exit paths — strategic sales to global acquirers (Thomson Reuters, WiseTech, Sovos, Nexaas) and management buyouts.