Kueski, one of the leading online lenders to the middle-class demographic in Mexico and founded in 2012, today announced that it secured a $35 million round of equity and debt funding, led by a consortium of investors representing the largest capital funding thus far for a fintech company in the country.
The funding consisted of a $10 million equity investment that was co-led by investors Richmond Global Ventures, Rise Capital, CrunchFund and Variv Capital, and with participation from Victory Park Capital and existing investors Angel Ventures Mexico, Core Ventures Group and Auria Capital, according to the company’s press release. As part of the deal, the amount of overall funding has the potential to increase to $100 million, subject to contingent terms. In similar news today the micro-investing company Acorn said that it secured a $30 million round from PayPal and group of investors.
Real-time microfinance
Kueski provides online microloans to Mexican consumers by leveraging big data analytics with machine learning to build a credit risk profile for each customer in order to quickly determine whether the applicant’s loan request is approved or rejected in real-time. The company's website depicts loan amounts that range up to $2000, with a repay period of up to thirty days. The firm is regulated by the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) in Mexico.
Adalberto Flores
Source: LinkedIn
Adalberto Flores, co-founder and CEO of Kueski, commenting in the press release regarding the deal: “We feel honored to partner with such an incredible group of investors. Their expertise in emerging markets and online lending businesses will enable our company to advance our market leadership and launch additional products in order to position Kueski as a leader in online lending for all of Latin America.”
Microloans aimed for Latin America
Peter Kellner, managing partner of Richmond Global Ventures and co-founder of Endeavor Global, a business group in Mexico, commented in the official press release: “Mexico is currently experiencing a historical moment in building a strong foundation for the future dominant online lending platforms to be built. Formal credit is not available to 85 percent of the population in Mexico. When you see such an important and large market opportunity being pursued by a world-class analytics team, it was a very easy decision to invest in the company.”
Mr. Kellner will be joining the Board of Directors (BoD) at Kueski, and follows Patrick Gallagher, partner of CrunchFund - which also lead the equity round announced today - joining the company’s BoD in 2014, according to the update.
“We are excited to partner with Kueski as both a debt and equity investor and believe in the transformational capability of what the team is building,” said Philip Nanney, a vice president at Victory Park Capital, commenting in the press release. “We are confident that Kueski will soon be a dominant source of credit in Latin America as it leverages a highly sophisticated approach to lending, one that enables Risk Management via learning, and adaptation over time.”
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