Internet and telecommunications group SoftBank invested $100m in Mexico-based business financing platform Konfio yesterday through its $5bn Latin America-focused Innovation Fund.
Konfio runs an online platform that provides financing to small and medium-sized businesses at better rates than conventional business loans offered by Mexican banks, which are increasingly shying away from business lending.
The company generally lends between $5,000 and $770,000 a time and its platform utilises artificial intelligence technology to ensure applicants can get approval in as little as six minutes.
SoftBank’s investment will fund the expansion of Konfio’s working capital lending and the introduction of new products such as life insurance to the company’s offering. The deal comes three months after it secured a $100m credit facility from investment banking firm Goldman Sachs.
The company had previously raised $25m in a June 2018 series C round led by Vostok Emerging Finance and backed by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) vehicle, QED Investors, Kaszek Ventures, Quona Capital and Jaguar Ventures.
The series C funding was closed alongside $60m in debt financing from IFC and Victory Park Capital Advisors. IFC had invested $3.5m to lead Konfio’s $10m series B round in 2017, which included QED Investors, Kaszek Ventures, Quona Capital and Jaguar Ventures.
The latter four has previously contributed to the company’s $8m series A round, which was led by Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund the year before.
