Brazil-based consumer loan provider Creditas has collected $200m in funding from internet and telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank at a $700m post-money valuation, Brazil Journal reported yesterday.
Founded in 2012 as BankFacil, Creditas operates an online lending platform that provides secured personal loans sized between R$5,000 and R$2m ($1,250 to $500,000). It has issued more than $125m in loans to date.
The company accepts cars and real estate as collateral, charging an average of 2% in interest on loans secured against the former and 1.25% interest on those against the latter, undercutting rates of up to 13% typically charged on overdrafts, credit cards and unsecured loans in Brazil.
Creditas has not specified how it plans to invest the funding, but it is reportedly looking to widen the type of collateral it accepts and is exploring business loans.
The company has now received more than $283m in funding altogether. It closed a $55m series C round in April 2018 after securing $5m from Santander InnoVentures, the strategic investment vehicle for financial services firm Santander, and venture capital firm Amadeus Capital Partners.
Creditas raised the initial $50m in a December 2017 first tranche led by investment firm Vostok Emerging Finance, which was joined by media and e-commerce group Naspers’ Fintech Fund, Kaszek Ventures, Quona Capital, QED Investors and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Naspers Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of Naspers, had already contributed to a $19m series B round for the company in February 2017 alongside IFC and Redpoint eVentures.
