Konfío, a Mexican fintech providing financial services to small and medium-sized businesses, has just become Mexico‘s fourth unicorn by being valued at $1.3 billion after raising an additional $110 million in a Series E round extension. The funding was led by Tarsadia Capital and QED Investors and included participation from Kaszek.
With this Konfío joins three other Mexican unicorns: the used car platform Kavak, the cryptocurrency platform Bitso and the digital payments platform Clip.
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In a statement, Konfío said it will use the funds to expand its operation in Mexico and to make new acquisitions and integrations to improve its service platform. David Arana, Konfío’s CEO and founder, said that small and medium-sized businesses in Mexico are commonly underserved when seeking credit and that Konfío’s goal is to serve just that audience.
“We are convinced that a long-term strategy to serve them works best with an integrated, multi-product approach in which credit is an important driver through which customer interactions are optimized,” he said.
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QED Investors Partner and Head of International Bill Cilluffo told LABS that Konfio has built an incredible team to accelerate the speed of building this end-to-end platform to boost the growth and productivity of Mexican companies.
“QED has invested in more than 30 companies across five Latin American countries since 2015. QED has now backed seven unicorns across the region, with Konfio joining Nubank, QuintoAndar, Loft, Kavak, Creditas, and Bitso, and we firmly believe in the limitless potential of the fintech ecosystem, not only in Mexico, but everywhere from Brazil, Chile, and Peru to Argentina and Colombia,” said Cilluffo.
Founded in 2013 and voted one of the 20 best-financed fintechs in the CB Insights annual ranking, Konfío targets small and medium-sized businesses at an early stage that need financial and/or operational support – according to Mexico‘s Business Competitiveness Development Center, 75% of new companies declare bankruptcy between 2 and 5 years due to mismanagement.
Fintech‘s product portfolio includes credit, business-to-business payments management, a financing platform, and a cloud-based system for operational, accounting, and financial management, available to both businesses and accountants.
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In 2020 Konfío increased its credit portfolio by 20%, while traditional banks reduced credit due to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. The fintech recently announced the extension of its credit line with Goldman Sachs bank by $160 million. By 2021, the startup plans to double the portfolio under management.
