A decade after its creation, the company has several business units, employs about 200 workers in the country and is in the process of internationalization.
RUA Assistance story emerges in October 2010, as a result of the synergy between Diego Sayanes and Oscar Churi , who shared the vision of bringing assistance services to corporate clients. “From the beginning, we set the goal of creating a company that would break with old paradigms in the world of assistance and provide excellent services,” recalled the founding partner, Churi.
Ten years after its creation, the company has several business units, employs about 200 workers in the country and is in the process of internationalization by opening its first subsidiaries in Paraguay and Argentina. «We have the experience and support of 10 years of work and more than 1 million services provided. None of this would have been possible without the trust of our clients, who little by little gave us their support ”, claimed the CEO and co-founder, Sayanes.
Innovation as a flag
In their decade of life they conquered several milestones to reach the position they have today. In March 2012, they generated the first agreements with finance companies, insurers, insurance companies, cooperatives, medical benefit entities and more recently, they formed alliances in the security market. “In a short time we went from being a group of five or six people to more than fifty,” said Churi.
At this point, it was key to focus on innovation, one of its main values. From its origins, RUA Assistance has positioned itself as a modern assistance company. Over the years, with the aim of continuing to deliver innovative solutions to its corporate clients and diversifying its value proposition, the company expanded into new business units. Thus, different spin-offs around RUA Assistance were created, forming an ecosystem of different companies consolidated as Grupo RUA.
Such is the case of RUA Auxilios , which offers mechanical assistance provided with cutting-edge technology, ServiciosYa! , a multi-service mobile application that has a network of highly qualified and previously selected providers, to bring users a first-rate online experience. The company, now under the English flag, also operates in the United Kingdom under the name of ServiceCity!. Additionally, Mashkady; a website that offers corporate clients the possibility of having a wide program of benefits for its users, from electronic products to gastronomic experiences; Galgo , a startup acquired in 2018 specialized in delivery and logistics; Onírica , a digital marketing agency focused on providing creative and innovative solutions in the digital world; and Coopera Innovation Hub , a modern innovation hub that the group recently launched to the market and with which it seeks to intensify its growth.
Beyond the borders
From the beginning of the company, the desire to cross borders beyond Uruguay was present.
At the end of 2019, Servicios Ya! is selected by a special program of the United Kingdom’s Department for the International Trade which allows it to settle down in that country. This is how it begins to operate in London under the name of ServiceCity! from an office in Paddington Central, where there are also large companies such as Microsoft, Vodafone, Visa and Splunk.
In addition, 10 years after its creation, Grupo RUA is opening its first subsidiaries in Paraguay and Argentina to bring its different companies closer to these markets, as the beginning of its internationalization plan, which aims to take the company to 10 countries in the coming years. “With the onset of the pandemic, we reconsidered our business plan and resolved to manage risk with greater care, but without ceasing to risk,” Sayanes stressed.
Regarding these countries, he explained that “Paraguay has experienced an economic boom since 2010 with a strong dynamism of foreign and local investment. With a beneficial tax regime for new ventures and a young population, the Guaraní nation shows great potential for the development of our services. Argentina is also a market with great potential for the services provided by the business group. It is one of the largest markets in Latin America, which, despite its current situation, presents enormous opportunities.
We created Coopera, a «hub» to promote entrepreneurship inside and outside the company
The technology and digital transformation drive the disruption in business , so the companies are challenged to rethink their work processes and how they approach their customers . From this evolution, needs arise in organizations, eager to have innovative projects that in turn need support to develop.
The hub joins our companies’ ecosystem which includes various business verticals ( RUA Aid , ServiciosYa and Mashkady , among others). The purpose of Coopera is to contribute to the connection of supply with demand, with a strong innovative component.
Although the financial contribution is not within the services, thanks to our wide portfolio of clients and alliances with different organizations in the business and educational fields , Coopera Innovation Hub offers entrepreneurs the possibility of connecting to a vast network of corporate clients.
One strength that this initiative offers to startups is to join an ecosystem formed around a benchmark company with more than 10 years in the market.
At the same time, each project joining Coopera counts on mentorship and support. It provides benefits such as training, technical assistance, legal and notarial advice, in a spacious and modern coworking space in the center of Montevideo. in a wide and modern space in downtown Montevideo.
Shortly after starting its activity, the hub already has three projects that it is accompanying: Casaigual, Training and Floor, which seek to innovate with solutions in the field of e-commerce, health and housing, respectively.
New talents
The commitment to innovation has been part of Grupo RUA since its origins. Currently, with more than 1 million services provided, we seek to deliver solutions that accompany the digital transformation that our clients are going through.
This allows us, among other things, to expand our core business by diversifying products and approaching other lines of business.
In this context, the opportunity arises to create synergy between the corporate world and entrepreneurs and startups that promote innovative ideas.
Coopera is open to receive all projects with that profile. The initiatives may come from diverse industries such as fintech , which aims at technological solutions for the financial sector, insurtech , which aims to innovate in the insurance industry, healthtech , which seeks to diversify solutions for the health sector, security , focused on finding tools to security companies, agrotech , which incorporates the latest technologies in rural activity, and renewable energies, among others.
With the creation of Coopera we seek to attract new talents, high-performance profiles that help us to continue innovating, first within the group and then bringing innovation to the market or to the ecosystem of friendly companies or clients, since we understand that there are exponential technologies that can transform certain sectors through solutions or products.
We are convinced that through this synergy in which we link and articulate different actors such as clients, entrepreneurs, investors, and other types of organizations, we are able to promote and accelerate the productive and economic development of those who participate in the value chain.
Innovate as part of our DNA
Grupo RUA encourages an open innovation process, of which its employees feel part. The Open Innovation department works on internal mechanisms to encourage ideas to take shape, moving from thought to action. “We encourage everyone from their place to question the task they are carrying out and propose alternatives or ideas for improvement. This is how we maintain a constant innovation process ”, says Diego Sayanes, our CEO.
We invite you to visit the full article published in the newspaper El País.
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