Now, with a monthly average of 1.5 million credit requests made on its platform, the fintech is focused on giving results.
"We will do 'growth' this year, yes, but the thinking has changed - for me, for the board, and for the stakeholders. We need to show breakeven. It's something we're going to see more and more in the world of startups as a whole," Sweden's Olle Widén, CEO and co-founder of FinanZero, told Finsiders, acknowledging that the conversation with investors is now different.
The fintech just raised US$4.1 million (approximately R$22 million) in a round with current investors - VEF, Webrock Ventures, Dunross & CO and Atlant Fonder - and joined by private investors, Brazilian and foreign, who have not had their names revealed. "We have brought in two new private investors. We have in the captable about 30 'private investors'," says Olle.
The check announced today is the fifth one received by the company. In the last round, disclosed in April last year, FinanZero raised US$ 7 million (R$ 40 million at the exchange rate at the time) to invest, basically, in customer acquisition with media campaigns, especially ads on broadcast TV. Since its founding in 2016, the company has received US$27.5 million in investments.
The funds raised will be allocated mainly for the expansion of the technology and data team. "We want to use the money to hire data scientists and grow in that data analytics part," explains the founder. On the demand side, FinanZero has a database with 31 million loan applications already made on the platform. Every month, there are about 1.5 million requests.
The company does not disclose the volume originated in credit, nor the number of active users, but says that the number of loan contracts grew 143% in the last 12 months, until April 22, in the year-on-year analysis. The revenue, on the other hand, more than doubled in the same comparison base. The number of leads, in turn, jumped 88%.
On the supply side, FinanZero has a base of 64 partner institutions, including banks such as Pan, Santander, Sofisa Direto, and fintechs such as Creditas, BizCapital, SuperSim, and Provu, among others. "We have about 30 partners with integration via APIs. We have a lot of data, credit score from various partners," says Olle. "We will invest in information technology and data science to be more integrated with banks."
The entrepreneur says that investment in marketing, mainly offline, will continue to exist, but on a smaller scale. "We have a strong, top of mind brand. Now we can sit down a bit to work more with the clients who already know the brand and have already taken out a loan," he points out. It is time to put our feet on the ground, or 'feet on the ground', as the founder himself points out.
Founded by Olle and fellow Swedes Joakim Pops and Kristian Jacobsson, FinanZero has in its search engine several types of credit offered by banks, finance companies and fintechs. The flagship is the unsecured personal loan, but on the platform you can search for credit offers with collateral (vehicle, property or cell phone), besides consigned for retirees and pensioners of the INSS, and even credit cards.
Today, the marketplace is focused mainly on credit for individuals (PF), but the fintech has already been studying the entry into the market of legal entities (PJ). "We are looking to enter next year. We already have at least 4 partners who work with working capital, but it is a product that we have not yet listed on the site."
With the credit marketplace model, FinanZero is not alone. A pioneer in this strategy, Bom Pra Crédito (BPC) joined Focus Financeira in a partnership announced in March this year. Under the agreement, the BPC marketplace - which has over 10 million users and over 30 partner institutions - will continue to exist. The fintech, in fact, has recently launched its own application.
Other fintechs with similar proposals are EasyCrédito - bought in May by FitBank - and Foregon, which started as a portal that gathers information on financial products and services and has been advancing in the marketplace strategy, as the CEO and founder told Finsiders earlier this year.
According to the latest projection made by Febraban, the total credit balance in the country should grow 1.1% in June, accelerating the pace of expansion of the portfolio in 12 months to 16.6%, against an estimated high of 16.3% in May. The growth should be driven by credit to families, whose estimated advance is 1.4% in June, says the entity.
Full article from Finsiders/FintechsBrasil
Finsiders é uma plataforma de conteúdo especializada no ecossistema de fintechs, fundada pelo jornalista Danylo Martins
Now, with a monthly average of 1.5 million credit requests made on its platform, the fintech is focused on giving results.
"We will do 'growth' this year, yes, but the thinking has changed - for me, for the board, and for the stakeholders. We need to show breakeven. It's something we're going to see more and more in the world of startups as a whole," Sweden's Olle Widén, CEO and co-founder of FinanZero, told Finsiders, acknowledging that the conversation with investors is now different.
The fintech just raised US$4.1 million (approximately R$22 million) in a round with current investors - VEF, Webrock Ventures, Dunross & CO and Atlant Fonder - and joined by private investors, Brazilian and foreign, who have not had their names revealed. "We have brought in two new private investors. We have in the captable about 30 'private investors'," says Olle.
The check announced today is the fifth one received by the company. In the last round, disclosed in April last year, FinanZero raised US$ 7 million (R$ 40 million at the exchange rate at the time) to invest, basically, in customer acquisition with media campaigns, especially ads on broadcast TV. Since its founding in 2016, the company has received US$27.5 million in investments.
The funds raised will be allocated mainly for the expansion of the technology and data team. "We want to use the money to hire data scientists and grow in that data analytics part," explains the founder. On the demand side, FinanZero has a database with 31 million loan applications already made on the platform. Every month, there are about 1.5 million requests.
The company does not disclose the volume originated in credit, nor the number of active users, but says that the number of loan contracts grew 143% in the last 12 months, until April 22, in the year-on-year analysis. The revenue, on the other hand, more than doubled in the same comparison base. The number of leads, in turn, jumped 88%.
On the supply side, FinanZero has a base of 64 partner institutions, including banks such as Pan, Santander, Sofisa Direto, and fintechs such as Creditas, BizCapital, SuperSim, and Provu, among others. "We have about 30 partners with integration via APIs. We have a lot of data, credit score from various partners," says Olle. "We will invest in information technology and data science to be more integrated with banks."
The entrepreneur says that investment in marketing, mainly offline, will continue to exist, but on a smaller scale. "We have a strong, top of mind brand. Now we can sit down a bit to work more with the clients who already know the brand and have already taken out a loan," he points out. It is time to put our feet on the ground, or 'feet on the ground', as the founder himself points out.
Founded by Olle and fellow Swedes Joakim Pops and Kristian Jacobsson, FinanZero has in its search engine several types of credit offered by banks, finance companies and fintechs. The flagship is the unsecured personal loan, but on the platform you can search for credit offers with collateral (vehicle, property or cell phone), besides consigned for retirees and pensioners of the INSS, and even credit cards.
Today, the marketplace is focused mainly on credit for individuals (PF), but the fintech has already been studying the entry into the market of legal entities (PJ). "We are looking to enter next year. We already have at least 4 partners who work with working capital, but it is a product that we have not yet listed on the site."
With the credit marketplace model, FinanZero is not alone. A pioneer in this strategy, Bom Pra Crédito (BPC) joined Focus Financeira in a partnership announced in March this year. Under the agreement, the BPC marketplace - which has over 10 million users and over 30 partner institutions - will continue to exist. The fintech, in fact, has recently launched its own application.
Other fintechs with similar proposals are EasyCrédito - bought in May by FitBank - and Foregon, which started as a portal that gathers information on financial products and services and has been advancing in the marketplace strategy, as the CEO and founder told Finsiders earlier this year.
According to the latest projection made by Febraban, the total credit balance in the country should grow 1.1% in June, accelerating the pace of expansion of the portfolio in 12 months to 16.6%, against an estimated high of 16.3% in May. The growth should be driven by credit to families, whose estimated advance is 1.4% in June, says the entity.
Full article from Finsiders/FintechsBrasil
Finsiders é uma plataforma de conteúdo especializada no ecossistema de fintechs, fundada pelo jornalista Danylo Martins