Neon raises $80m in its First Credit Card Investment Fund (FIDC)

By Edlyn Cardoza

Neon, a FinTech company and digital bank focused on improving the lives of working Brazilians, recently announced that it has raised $80 million in its first Credit Rights Investment Fund (FIDC) focused on credit cards. This investment increases the total fund to $170 million US in equity, which is expected to nearly double.

“The funding endorses the strength and positive history that we have been building in the management of the credit portfolio over the last few years. Today our credit engine is mature and the FIDC resources will give us the strength to continue expanding our portfolio in a sustainable and balanced way in the med-long term. The focus continues to be on the Brazilian worker, and always with the mission to reduce inequalities by building paths to credit,” says Jamil Marques, CFO of Neon.

This is the second fundraising made by Neon in the private credit market this year, given that it had already raised just over $40 million for its private payroll deductible FIDC at the beginning of 2022. The management of the FIDC focused on credit cards was attributed to Empírica, an asset management with 12+ years of experience in the market, focused on structured credit and a portfolio of 50+ funds and over $1.5 billion in assets under custodial.

“We are excited about this partnership that began on the first months of the year as a one-off investment in another Neon FIDC, focused on private payroll loans. Based on this good experience, we expanded our relationship to take over the management of the credit card fund. The intention is to bring more comfort and security to investors, including ourselves who, via funds managed by us, contributed a total of $20 million to FIDC Neon. This shows an alignment of interests with the other investors in this fund,” says Giuliano Longo, Managing Partner of Business Expansion at Empírica, adding that the check may increase as the FIDC grows. In addition to Empírica, XP and BV also led investments in the FIDC.