Payment services firm Visa and venture capital firm Foundation Capital co-led a $170m series C round for US-headquartered financial services app developer Branch International yesterday.
The round included online lending platform CreditEase and International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private investment arm of the World Bank, as well as Andreessen Horowitz, Trinity Ventures, Formation 8, Victory Park Capital, Greenspring Associates, Foxhaven Asset Management and B Capital.
Branch runs a mobile-focused financial services platform with 3 million customers that has been tailored for use by those in emerging markets. It runs offices in Mexico, India and Kenya, and uses alternative forms of data, as opposed to credit histories, to determine the creditworthiness of borrowers.
The funding will support expansion in Africa, India and Latin America, and Visa has agreed to partner Branch on a scheme where it will offer virtual prepaid debit card numbers to customers, enabling them to withdraw money from ATMs without a bank account.
Bill Sheedy, Visa’s executive vice-president of strategy, said: “At Visa, we believe financial empowerment is an essential passport out of poverty. Our partnership with Branch provides Visa a key distribution mechanism to reach people that were previously out of reach and help shape the future of microfinance.”
The round comes after Branch raised $70m in series B equity funding and debt from CreditEase’s Fintech Investment Fund, Trinity Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Victory Park Capital and IFC in March 2018.
Formation 8 had joined Khosla Ventures’ Khosla Impact Fund to supply an undisclosed amount of seed capital for the company before returning for a $9.2m series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz in 2016.
