Mexico City, June 18, 2018. Konfío, the leading online lending platform for small and medium businesses (SME) in Mexico, announces its $25 million Series C funding round, along with $60 million in debt, totaling $85 million in combined equity and debt capital. Vostok Emerging Finance (Vostok EF), led the Series C investment round and is joined by existing investors, including QED Investors, Kaszek Ventures, Quona Capital, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Jaguar Ventures.
Mexico is Latam’s second largest market opportunity with a population of 127 million (no 10 global) and c. 7 million SMEs. Konfío is a digital-first unsecured lending platform, with a mission to support the growth of Mexico’s vast underserved small business community. Within the broader Mexican SME credit space, Konfío focuses on the top end credit of the small business segment which is viewed as a $45 billion opportunity. With its online and digital first approach, Konfío leverages technology and big data analytics, complementing traditional financial analysis and streamlines the loan application process, providing convenience and affordability to customers who are creditworthy but historically underserved by traditional banking.
“We are excited to announce our latest portfolio investment and our first in Mexico. Konfío is an asset we have tracked for 2 years now and it represents a truly unique opportunity and a stand-out asset in Mexican SME credit space. We love scale opportunities, with clear traction and strong management teams and Konfío very much fits our investment mantra. We look forward to working with David Arana and his team on the journey ahead”, commented David Nangle, Managing Director of Vostok EF.
Victory Park Capital Advisors, LLC (Victory Park), a leading investment firm focused on providing private debt and opportunistic equity solutions worldwide, along with IFC, provided two separate credit facilities, which will fund Konfío’s future loan growth.
“IFC is pleased to support Konfío with debt capital in addition to our equity investment as the company continues to enhance its technology platform to meet the needs of SMEs across Mexico,” said Kai Schmitz who leads IFC’s FinTech Investments in Latin America. “We believe Konfío is well positioned to continue providing credit alternatives to an underserved customer base and are excited to help the business grow,” added Gordon Watson, Partner at Victory Park.
The additional equity and debt capital will allow Konfío to maintain its growth rate, and also improve their product offering that will help boost the development of the SME sector in the country.
“We’re delighted to partner with such prominent equity and debt investors to continue our mission of empowering SMEs through access to credit. Having shown strong traction in the last twelve months, we are looking forward to continue investing in building a world class company, improving our technology stack and scaling beyond unsecured business term loans, with the launch of new products for underbanked SMEs in the region”, said David Arana, Founder & CEO at Konfío.