Fen Ventures led a US$3m Series A in Destacame.cl, a Chilean financial inclusion platform, with participation from previous investors Accion Venture Lab and Mountain Nazca Chile.
(Press Release) Santiago, Chile, March 4, 2019 – Chilean-based personal financial management platform Destacame announced today that it has closed a US$3 million Series A round of funding from Fen Ventures and existing investors Accion Venture Lab, the seed-stage investment initiative of global nonprofit Accion, and Mountain Nazca. The funds will help Destacame scale its operations in Mexico, reinforce its leading position in Chile, and continue developing its suite of financial products.
Launched in 2015, Destacame offers a suite of products that allow consumers to thoroughly manage their financial life, including past-due debt repayment, graduating loans to help borrowers build or improve their credit history, consumer loans, credit cards, and free financial health tools. It couples these financial products with an alternative credit score based on alternative data and an individual’s payment behavior, including utility and other bill payments, to determine a consumer’s creditworthiness. The company collaborates with more than 25 financial institutions to deliver these financial products through its platform. Destacame focuses on reducing the cost of the financial system while empowering underserved individuals to build their financial capabilities and ultimately access better quality financial products through an intuitive and simple platform.
“At Destacame, we are committed to helping the financially underserved gain access to credit and other formal financial products. We’re excited to bring on Fen Ventures as our newest partner, and we look forward to continuing our work with Accion Venture Lab and Mountain Nazca, who have been great supporters since the beginning,” said Sebastian Ugarte, Founder and CEO at Destacame.
“At Accion Venture Lab, we are dedicated to continuing our support for Destacame’s team as it scales into new markets and grows its range of innovative products to improve financial health,” said Matthieu Albrieux, Investment Officer for Latin America at Accion Venture Lab.
Accion Venture Lab began working with Destacame through the Catalyst Fund in 2015, and Accion Venture Lab and Mountain Nazca participated in Destacame’s seed round in 2016. After seeing success in Chile, Destacame expanded its service offerings into Mexico in 2017. Currently, the company reaches over 1.3 million users across Chile and Mexico, and continues to focus on building a holistic suite of financial products tailored toward boosting financial inclusion for the underserved.
About Destacame
Destacame is a personal financial management platform that has empowered over 1.3 million individuals by giving them control over their data to build financial capabilities and access financial products. Destacame was launched in Chile in August 2015. It was founded by Jorge Camus, Augusto Ruiz-Tagle and Sebastian Ugarte while they were finishing their MBA at MIT. It currently has more than 30 employees and offices in Chile and Mexico. More information, please visit www.destacame.cl.
About Accion Venture Lab
Accion Venture Lab is a seed-stage investment initiative focused on fintech for the underserved. Venture Lab invests capital in and provides support to innovative fintech startups that improve access, quality, and affordability of financial services for the underserved at scale. Since launching in 2012, Venture Lab has invested in 40 early-stage startups that operate in over 30 countries worldwide. Venture Lab is a part of Accion, a global nonprofit committed to creating a financially inclusive world, with a pioneering legacy in microfinance and fintech impact investing. Accion catalyzes financial service providers to deliver high-quality, affordable solutions at scale for the three billion people who are left out of – or poorly served by – the financial sector. For more than 50 years, Accion has helped tens of millions of people through our work with more than 110 partners in 50 countries. For further information, visit https://www.accion.org/venturelab.
