The FINANCIAL — The International Finance Corporation (IFC), member of the World Bank Group, announced that Konfío, one of the leading online lending platforms for small businesses in Mexico, has successfully raised USD$10 million in a second round of financing.
IFC led this Series B round with USD$3.5 million and included the following Series A investors: QED Investors, Kaszek Ventures, Quona Capital and Jaguar Ventures. IFC will help Konfío grow future partnerships and mobilize further capital for more MSMEs throughout Mexico.
“Our Fintech team focuses on technology-driven innovation in financial infrastructure, products, services, and their distribution. By 2017 we had invested over $3000 million in equity and debt in early- and growth-stage FinTech companies around the globe,” said Kai Schmitz, who leads IFC’s Fintech investments in Latin America.
Konfío is changing the financial ecosystem with working capital loans geared towards MSMEs. Through its online platform, Konfío processes thousands of data points from the MSMEs using big data analytics, and approves loans in real-time, allowing each applicant to save 2 months on average, compared to a brick and mortar process. Konfío also offers more competitive pricing than other unsecured products such as credit cards in Mexico, because of their ability to accurately do credit scoring for this market, and because they don’t require an entire team of credit analysts and branches in order to approve a loan. This makes it possible for underserved businesses – even those without any formal credit history – to benefit from the formal economy and get capital to boost their business, according to IFC.
“This new round of investment will be used to further improve Konfío’s product and user experience, and allow us to offer working capital to many more promising businesses throughout the country. We expect to accelerate growth, and have an even stronger positive impact on our clients and the local economy as a whole. This is a great example of how the private sector can have an important contribution in helping small businesses. Thanks to the loans originated to date, more than 50,000 families have been positively impacted,” said David Arana, Founder and CEO of Konfío.
Konfío launched its first product version in 2014; a term-loan with fixed installments and maximum loan amount of USD $50,000. With a growing client base of thousands of small businesses, Konfío is positioning itself as the leading MSME lending platform, addressing an estimated market of USD 20 billion.
Along with more than 2,000 companies worldwide, IFC uses its capital, experience and influence to create opportunities where they are most needed. In fiscal year 2017, IFC’s long-term investments in developing countries amounted to $ 19.3 billion, helping the private sector play a vital role in the global effort to end extreme poverty and increase shared prosperity.
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