German bank KfW Group’s subsidiary DEG led a US$12m Series B in BizCapital, a Brazilian lending fintech providing credit for small businesses, with participation from MELI Fund, 42k investments, and follow-on from Quona Capital, monashees, and Chromo Invest.
(Press Release) BizCapital, a Brazilian SME online lender has just raised a Series B financing round of $12 million led by the German development finance institution DEG, a subsidiary of KfW Group, Germany’s promotional bank. The round reinforces investors’ confidence in BizCapital’s ability to innovate in the Latin American credit market amid challenging circumstances caused by Covid-19. MELI Fund, the Corporate Venture Capital Fund of MercadoLivre joined the round.
This new investment is its largest ever. The company raised a Seed Round in January 2018 from Monashees, one of the leading VC firms in Latin America, Chromo Invest and 42K Investments. In September 2018, it raised a Series A of $5 million led by Quona Capital, a Washington-based VC firm focused on fintechs. Current investors have also joined the Series B round.
The capital raised will be directed at accelerating the development of new product offerings to Brazilian SMEs, as well as to continue developing new distribution channels. “What we aim to achieve with these new resources is to continue helping entrepreneurs during the entire lifecycle of their companies. With the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, BizCapital continues to support companies with an increasingly active role,” Francisco Ferreira, CEO and Co-Founder at BizCapital says.
The fintech has already served more than 5,000 customers in more than 1,200 Brazilian cities. Since its inception, BizCapital has grown at a rapid pace, with its mission to reduce red tape in the Brazilian SME lending market, offering entrepreneurs a fast and reliable way to access financing for working capital and growth. “BizCapital’s tech-driven business model as an online lender enables an innovative, efficient and effective way of providing financing to SMEs that are the backbone of the Brazilian economy,” says Felix Schneider, DEG Vice President FinTechs Global Markets.
About BizCapital
BizCapital provides online working capital loans to SMEs, through a fast and reliable process. The company, founded in 2016 by three seasoned entrepreneurs with one successful exit, makes it its mission to help Brazilian entrepreneurs get access to the capital that they need to grow their businesses.
About DEG
For almost 60 years DEG has been a reliable partner to private-sector enterprises operating in emerging markets. With its portfolio of around EUR 9 billion in approximately 80 countries, it is one of the world’s largest private-sector development financiers.