A $260 million Series F funding round has given Brazilian secured lending platform Creditas a valuation of $4.8 billion. The new capital will help the company expand its operations and provide a “one-stop solution for those seeking a digital-first experience in everything related to their houses, cars, motorcycles, and salary-based benefits.”
The round was led by Fidelity Management and Research Company and featured participation from a sizable number of investors including Actyus, Greentrail Capital, QED Investors, VEF, SoftBank Vision Fund 1, SoftBank Latin America Fund, Kaszek Ventures, Lightrock, Headline, Wellington Management, and Advent International by way of its affiliate Sunley House Capital.
The Series F brings Creditas’ total capital raised to $854 million, according to Crunchbase.
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Creditas announced a significant boost in revenues in the third quarter of 2021 compared to Q3 of 2020 – from $46.8 million to $14 million. Creditas founder and CEO Sergio Furio projects that the company will realize annualized revenues of $200 million for the year that just ended. Creditas also saw its credit portfolio grow from $189.3 million in Q3 2020 to $532 million in Q3 2021.
“We plan to continue growing by nurturing and expanding our ecosystem, such as providing financial solutions to our marketplace customers, launching new products, extending our geographic reach (including our recent successful entry into Mexico and the expansion of our tech hub in Valencia, Spain) and selectively pursuing strategic M&A opportunities,” Furio said in a statement.
Last fall, Creditas announced a partnership with fellow Brazilian fintech – and Finovate alum – Nubank, that will enable Nubank customers to secure loans and other services from the Creditas platform. Months earlier, Creditas acquired used car buying and selling platform Volanty. The move will help buttress Creditas’ automotive division, Creditas Auto. Also last summer, Creditas acquired multi-channel insurance brokerage company Minuto Seguros, which was also part of the company’s project to enhance its auto financing business.
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Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Central and Southern Asia
- Payment services provider BPC teamed up with UnionPay International in Pakistan.
- Google announced plans to invest $1 billion in coalition with Indian telecom service provider Airtel to boost smartphone access for Indians.
- Fintech News Singapore featured its roster of the Top 10 Most Promising Indian Fintech Startups in 2022.
Latin America and the Caribbean
- Latin American mobile-first brokerage app Vest secured seed investment of $6 million.
- Argentine fintech Uala launched in Colombia.
- Brazilian financing platform a55 announced $16 million Series B investment.
Asia-Pacfic
- U-Pay, a mobile payments service provider based in Cambodia, teams up with IPification to provide authentication for its payments service and digital wallet.
- International money transfer company Wise announced partnership with Tencent Financial Technology to enable customers to send money to China via Weixin.
- Indonesian financial API platform Ayoconnect secured $15 million in Series B funding in a round led by Tiger Global.
Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tanzanian mobile money service NALA raised $10 million in seed funding to fuel its pivot to international money transfers.
- Ghana-based digital recordkeeping and embedded finance solution provider OZÉ secured $3 million in pre-Series A funding.
- Nigerian fintech P2vest announced reaching 100,000 users for its P2P lending app.
Central and Eastern Europe
- Apple Pay goes live in Armenia.
- Lithuania’s iDenfy announced a partnership with European Merchant Bank.
- Estonia-based core banking provider Tuum (formerly known as Modularbank) scored $16.7 million (€15 million) in funding led by Portage Ventures.
Middle East and Northern Africa
- Saudi Arabia-based fintech Lean raised $33 million in Series A funding in a round led by Sequoia Capital India.
- Israeli cryptocurrency security firm Fireblocks earned a valuation of $8 billion after securing an investment of $550 million.
- Turkey-based digital wallet Hepsipay added Buy Now Pay Later functionality.
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