Brazilian FinTech Creditas raises $ 200 million from investors
Sergio Furio, CEO of São Paulo-based Fintech Creditas Solucoes Financeiras Ltda, said in an interview that the company is currently working with various investors to raise $ 200 million. He also said that Creditas plans to buy financial institutions such as a bank and a mortgage.
Founded as a fintech startup in April 2012 in São Paulo by Sergio Furio, Creditas currently values nearly $ 4.8 billion. Various other media reports suggest that in the valuation scheme of the American stock exchange, the company values at almost 10 billion dollars.
With four offices in Brazil, one office each in Spain and Mexico, Creditas is the second most wanted startup for Brazilians, according to a survey conducted by LinkedIn. Currently, more than 1,600 people work in various segments of Creditas.
In the banking area, Creditas plans to buy a Brazilian banking license from Andorra-based Andbank that will enable the company to operate as a bank in the country. Therefore, the company can increase its footprint from online consumer loans to the banking sector itself, which involves investments and huge credit companies.
Sergio Furio, founder and CEO of Creditas
Media reports indicate that according to the banking license agreement, Andbank will become a minority shareholder in Creditas.
Andbank’s CEO Carlos Aso said that the agreement will help the bank reduce its capital requirements, which in turn will help the private banking company to grow in the asset management segment.
Under the agreement, Andbank would continue to operate as a broker-dealer in The credit. The credit portfolio of investors in Andbank will be managed by Creditas using its credit products.
The license agreement, which is worth almost 100 million dollars, will only go ahead if the central bank in Brazil, the Banco Central do Brasil and the antitrust watchdog in the country CADE give the go-ahead.
According to regulations and guidelines, Creditas Bank would have almost $ 83.5 million in regulatory capital.
Creditas, formerly known as BankFacil, completed its first and second rounds of financing in 2014 and 2015. International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank and the renowned investment holding company Naspers, along with a few other investors, financed Creditas with almost 60 million Brazilian reals.
One of the largest investment rounds came in June 2019 when the Japanese investment group SoftBank, Vostok Emerging Finance, Santander InnoVentures and Amadeus Capital invested almost 900 million Brazilian reals.
Creditas currently offers financial credit products such as loans with the property as a guarantee (known a lot as mortgages) and vehicle guarantee loans. A customer at Creditas can apply for up to 150,000 mortgages as a refinancing loan for vehicles.
