FTV Capital and Endeavor Catalyst Fund have made a US$30m investment in Brazilian payment processor EBANX.
(Press Release) EBANX, a company headquartered in Brazil that offers Latin American local payment methods to international merchants, enabling them to sell their products and services to Latin America, today announced that it has raised a $30 million investment from FTV Capital, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst Fund. Last year, EBANX processed $1.2 billion in cross-border transactions and achieved the milestone of helping over 30 million users from the region gain full access to major international e-commerce merchants. The company experienced an 80% average annual growth rate in all verticals served over the last three years and will continue to expand its highly differentiated e-commerce solution that drives vastly enhanced approval rates, increased sales, reduced fraud and streamlined cross-currency settlement.
EBANX will benefit from FTV’s strategic financial services network and experience scaling global, high growth companies across the fintech and payments ecosystem. FTV Capital is the first institutional investor in the company. As part of the transaction, FTV Capital principal Robert Anderson will join the company’s board of directors, and FTV Capital partner Chris Winship will become a board observer.
“We started EBANX almost six years ago with a clear understanding that we had a wide-open ocean in front of us. At that time, nobody was doing what we were doing and all of our focus was dedicated to attracting new merchants to our platform. Integrate with EBANX and sell two to three times more within the region was, and still is, our mantra,” explained Alphonse Voigt, co-founder and CEO of EBANX. “By 2019, there will be more than 150 million online consumers throughout Latin America, and we will be central to helping facilitate this expansion seamlessly. Backed by more than 300 ebankers (employees), Endeavor’s know-how in high-impact entrepreneurship and FTV’s expertise with many years of payments industry experience and proven track record, we are fully poised to take EBANX to unprecedented levels of growth, serving merchants worldwide.”
Recent EBANX growth milestones include:
New products & licenses
• EBANX Account, a digital wallet used to track all EBANX payments and refunds, and make purchases via a prepaid virtual card;
• U.K. Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license (e-Money license) from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Partner integrations
• EBANX is one of the first payment companies to be fully integrated with Google Pay.
Geographic expansion
• Service offering expanding to Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia in the first semester of 2018; current markets include Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru;
• New sales and IT office planned for San Francisco; current offices include Curitiba, São Paulo and London.
With its differentiated platform and customer focused approach, EBANX counts over 500 merchants as clients and has attracted global e-commerce brands such as AliExpress, Spotify, Airbnb, Udacity, Wish, and GearBest, serving them directly or through partnerships with global payment service providers such as Alipay, Worldline and others.
“The EBANX management team has built an impressive operation that has capitalized on strong global e-commerce momentum and is efficiently solving a pain point for international merchants seeking to serve Latin American customers,” said Robert Anderson, principal at FTV Capital. “The company’s unique API integration streamlines payment acceptance, minimizing inherent cross-border friction and driving strong adoption by blue chip e-commerce brands. We are incredibly excited to be a part of this next phase of EBANX’s growth.”