Creditas raises $255mn in Series E funding at a valuation of $1.75bn

By Pavithra R

Brazil-based consumer loan startup Creditas has announced the closing of a Series-E investment round of $ 255 mn, valuing the firm at $ 1.75 bn. 

The new funding round saw participation from new international partners including LGT Lightstone, Tarsadia Capital, e.ventures, Wellington Management and Advent International via its affiliate Sunley House Capital. Current shareholders SoftBank Vision Fund 1, SoftBank Latin America Fund, VEF, Kaszek Ventures and Amadeus Capital Partners also participated in the finance round.

“LGT Lightstone invests in companies that generate high impact through differentiated technology and innovation. We have been following Creditas for a long time, and we understand that the company has the perfect combination of a team with a very high delivery capacity and a huge addressable market that is poorly served by financial institutions,” said Marcos Wilson Pereira, Managing Partner of LGT Lightstone at Brazil.

The FinTech is planning to use the finance to continue advancing its goal of helping people to realize their dreams. The firm will also ll continue the process started in 2019 of expanding its product offering on three major fronts:

• FinTech: a complete financial services ecosystem, modern, digital and with low-cost products for our customers,
• Consumer Solutions: a solution offering that allows users to use the full potential of a property, vehicle, and salary, as well as be the first virtual store in Brazil that allows payment with a discount on the salary of the employee,
• Mexico: after reinventing the Brazilian market, the firm is determined to deliver the same disruptive experience to the Mexican consumer.

“By helping Brazilians take control of their credits at low-interest rates, Creditas has created a product loved by consumers that delivers value to customers and investors. We have been involved since Series A through Redpoint e.ventures, and now we are delighted to support the company through our global growth fund”, comments Mathias Schilling, co-founder and Managing Partner of e.ventures. 

Creditas visions to expand by adopting an increasingly aggressive strategy in 3 phases, including:

• Guaranteed Credit Marketplace (2012-2016): Anticipated a trend towards the digitalization of the Brazilian population and created an online platform that allowed banks to deliver guaranteed credit in the digital environment
• Guaranteed credit platform (2016-2019): Realized the need to gain independence to create quality credit and launched its home equity and auto equity products, migrating from a channel strategy to a product strategy
• Solutions ecosystem (2019-): a new perspective at the market and started a new adventure with the expansion of its credit and FinTech platform, the creation of a vertical of solutions for customers and the internationalization to Mexico.

“Creditas is at the beginning of a journey to penetrate the underexplored credit market in Brazil and Mexico,” said Paulo Passoni, Managing Partner of SoftBank Latin America Fund.

Also, read 5 FinTech companies transforming the financial space in Brazil.