Our CEO, Marco Romero, at TIINSIDE on the Journey That Shaped Taking's Future

How do you transform technology into business value when you start from scratch? The story of our CEO, Marco Romero, is about exactly that — and about never giving up.

The Beginning (and the Restarts)

Everyone who knows Marco today — CEO of a company with over a thousand employees, serving giants like Bradesco, Nubank, and Mondelez — has trouble imagining that he started as an office boy in the late 1990s. But that's exactly where it all began.

At 18, he joined one of the pioneers in development and training in the Oracle ecosystem. He learned by doing. He made many mistakes. He got it right when it mattered. And, above all, he never stopped observing how technology solves real business problems.

After the first cycle (1999-2000), came the part nobody likes to talk about: three attempts at entrepreneurship. All three failed financially. But Marco doesn't see it that way: "They were attempts that went wrong, but they taught me exactly what not to do".

Without a plan B, without a safety net, coming from a humble background, giving up was never an option.

The Turning Point

Between 2006 and 2007, the decisive move came. Marco returned to the company where he started, but this time to buy it. He competed with more than 40 interested parties. He won. And he took on 100% of the business.

That's where the real construction of what is today Grupo Taking began.

The strategy was clear from the start: professionalize management, build strong boards, form experienced leadership. And he brought heavyweights for that: executives like Rogério Oliveira (former president of IBM Brazil, now a board member for four years) and Sérgio Brito (former vice president of IBM).

It wasn't just about growing. It was about growing well.

The Transformation: from body shop to product creators

Over the past eight years, Taking went through a profound — and intentional — change.

Before, we were known mainly for talent allocation (the famous body shop). Good? Yes. But it wasn't where we wanted to stay.

So we gradually migrated to a value-delivery-oriented model: structured services, complex projects, proprietary solutions. Today, we don't just implement technology — we conceive, think, and develop products faster and more efficiently than the market average.

And the proof of that has a name: TATe AI.

TATe AI: when innovation becomes product

TATe AI was born out of an internal need: to increase our own productivity in project management. Our R&D area created an internal framework so good that Marco made a demand: "This can't stay just here inside. We're going to turn this into a scalable product."

And that's what we did.

TATe AI is an artificial intelligence suite that operates end-to-end, from conception to operation of digital products. It handles ideation, discovery, market analysis, backlog definition, development acceleration. All integrated.

The differentiator? It's not just about coding faster (although we do that too). It's about attacking the root cause of projects: integrating business and technology, eliminating losses of focus, knowledge, and alignment.

The results? The platform allows you to conceive products up to 60 times faster. It accelerates frameworks like Design Thinking, Design Sprint, and Lean Inception from weeks to days.

And the best part: it's flexible. It serves different segments, company profiles, markets. It analyzes existing solutions, identifies competition, assesses market potential, and projects ROI in an automated way.

Who Is Using It (and What Is Happening)

Today, TATe AI is used in two ways:

1. Internally, accelerating our own projects
2. As a SaaS product, adopted by large-scale clients

Among users: Copastur, ABInbev, Cultura Inglesa, Telesena.

Practical results have already appeared:

+64% efficiency gain in re-rating processes (corporate travel)

Reduction from weeks to 2 days in reconciliation time

-50% in resume screening time in R&S

+30% in profile-to-vacancy match

Not a promise. A delivery.

Lisbon, Web Summit and International Validation

In November 2025, we were invited to present TATe AI at Web Summit Lisbon, one of the world's largest technology events.

What did Marco see there? A lot of ideas, few consolidated projects. "I didn't see a maturity much higher than ours. There's a lot of talk and little execution", he assesses.

And that's not arrogance — it's an observation. Brazilian innovation is competing on equal terms globally.

The participation generated concrete results:

✅ New international contacts ✅ Relevant pipeline in prospecting ✅ Proof of concepts in progress ✅ Special interest from Spanish companies ✅ And, curiously, interest from Brazilian companies that didn't know Taking

Where We Are Today

More than 120 active clients, 5x the number from two years ago.

Among them: Bradesco, Yamaha, HDI Seguros, Creditas, Starbucks, Subway, Dafiti, ABInbev, Telesena, Nubank, Scala Data Centers. Strategic projects such as the one for Mondelez (including the Easter operation, which represents ~50% of the client's annual target).

The numbers speak for themselves:

• Nominal growth of 90% between 2020 and 2025
• CAGR of 14%
• Declared target: to be among the 10 largest technology companies in Brazil in the next 20 years

And TATe AI is our main lever for that.

What's Coming Now

For 2026, we are already working on TATe AI version 2.0:

• No-code AI agents
• Orchestration of hybrid teams (human + virtual)
• Advanced business planning modules
• Specialized agents in finance and market analysis

The strategy combines organic growth, international expansion, and consolidation of a culture of responsible and productive use of artificial intelligence.

Looking back, Marco sums it up like this:

"I've rarely seen a team as prepared, committed, and experienced as the one we have today. That's what will allow us to do something truly different in the market and consolidate the vision that Brazilian innovation can compete — and deliver value — anywhere in the world."

And that is exactly what drives us.

It's not about being the biggest company. It's about being the one that delivers the most value — to our clients, to our team, to the market.

Read the full article at: TIINSIDE