Xepelin, a Chilean fintech company focused on financial services for small and medium-sized businesses, announced that it has raised $80 million in debt from Community Investment Management (CIM), a management company that invests in solutions for underserved communities.
The capital will be used to bolster the fintech‘s presence in Mexico, Xepelin’s big bet to grow in Latin America – data from the Ministry of Economy shows that there are about 4 million SMBs in the country.
To reach this potential clientele, Xepelin launched a new credit service called “Payments“. The solution offers short-term working capital loans for small and medium-sized businesses that need money to pay their bills on time, such as employees and suppliers.
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“If the company doesn’t have the capital to pay its bills at that moment, but has receivables in 30, 60 or 90 days, it can take out a loan with Xepelin and pay us back later as the receivables come in,” said Sebastian Kreis, co-CEO and founder of Xepelin.
Xepelin offers a SaaS platform for small and medium-sized businesses in Latin America where they can organize their financial information in real-time. The platform organizes data on receivables, invoices and bills, and, through an algorithm, shows the financial status of each customer and/or supplier. With this, says the fintech, decision-makers have the necessary information to set the next steps more securely.
According to data from INEGI, the Mexican institute of geography and statistics, 1.6 million micro, small and medium-sized businesses have closed down in the last two years. The majority, according to the Mexican Entrepreneurs’ Association, had to close their business due to a lack of market knowledge (34%) and poor business management (32%).
“It is common for small and medium-sized businesses to face difficulty in dealing with the financial complexities and administrative processes,” Kreis explained.
Last July, Xepelin raised a $230 million Series A round led by Kaszek and DST Global. The fintech currently has operations in Chile and Mexico and serves more than 4,000 customers.