Weel, a cash flow management platform, has raised BRL 80 million from Brazilian bank BV, formerly known as Banco Votorantim, as announced by the bank and reported by media agency Reuters.
Focusing on products for small companies, the fintech was created in Israel in 2015 by Brazilians Simcha Neumark and Shmuel Kalmus, and by the American Russell Weiss. Weel offers working capital funds to companies with an average annual turnover of around BRL 10 million.
Brazil’s fifth-largest private bank in assets, BV intends to increase share in the sector of loans for medium businesses. For the bank’s strategy and innovation director, Guilherme Horn, the investment unveils how the niche of medium-sized companies is still badly served by the traditional financial system. “We are noticing that there is demand from companies, but that it is still not well served by the market,” the executive told Reuters.
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The new funding will help the fintech to expand its operations in Brazil, reaching all states in the country, as well as to explore other markets in Latin America. Weel’s plan is to reach Chile and Mexico in the near future.
BV, which has filed for IPO registration this week, is combining two operation frontiers – loans to smaller companies and investments in fintechs – in order to accelerate revenue growth in the coming years.