About a month ago, Paulo David, co-founder and CEO of AmFi, a credit infrastructure fintech based on blockchain technology, told Finsiders that he was waiting for the 'green light' from the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) to offer his tokens on a crowdfunding platform. Well. This week, the regulator granted authorisation for the company to go ahead with the initiative and distribute its assets publicly.
With the move, the fintech will be able to offer its liquidity pools, which use traditional assets such as card receivables and trade bills as collateral, to be the bridge between fintechs that serve SMEs and seek credit and retail investors, as well as qualified investors.
For companies to be able to distribute the tokens publicly, in addition to operating as crowdfunding platforms, they need to apply for prior authorisation, be registered with the agency and raise up to R$15 million, with a time limit of 180 days.
"Now we can talk openly about what we're doing and carry out the public distribution of assets. We can bring more and more investors to the operations we are structuring," says Paulo, in an exclusive conversation with Finsiders.
In this sense, AmFi is already planning to make its first public offering in September. The parameters of the operation have yet to be defined, but AmFi's entry product is currently a R$1,000 investment. And, according to CVM rules, retail investors can invest up to R$35,000 in the calendar year in offers of this type.
Next year, AmFi plans to add even more technology to its platform. Today, the fintech makes several integrations with the traditional financial system by connecting with banking infrastructures and asset registries. The team has experience in the sector - of the 14 people who make up the technology and product team, each professional has an average of around seven years in the market.
In the pipeline of adjustments to meet CVM requirements, compliance was one of the main aspects affected, in order to identify the risks of operations, which are considered highly complex. Paulo explains that the regulator has signalled positively about building a secondary token market - something along the lines of the SMU Startup Market, which is part of the regulatory sandbox environment.
This type of initiative could bring more liquidity to investors. "For those who sell, what generates the most value for investors is liquidity, since they can get rid of an asset and take advantage of another opportunity. In Brazil, this doesn't exist with receivables. FIDCs [credit rights investment funds] are very rigid. So when we do this with security and control, it's a huge advantage," says AmFi's CEO.
He says that the fintech has been evolving in terms of application and business rules. The next step is to use smart contracts as triggers in operations, putting the full potential of blockchain technology into play to carry out a certain action in the event of a delay in payment by one of the parties, for example.
Another point is that AmFi should make an international launch for foreign funds and investors from the United States. According to the executive, Brazil's high interest rates are attracting the attention of 'gringos'.
"Investors, especially from the US, look very closely at interest rates in Brazil, one of the highest in the world. We anticipate this with a rate of 20 per cent. So it becomes very attractive," says the entrepreneur.
Currently, the fintech has assets with a return of between 17% and 18% per year, but that reaches 30% when it comes to a judicial asset, following the higher degree of risk.
Even with the possibility of reaching retail, AmFi's strategy remains to gain a foothold among qualified investors.
"Retail is not our focus, even though we have a large space. We've focused on qualified investors, with larger operations and a little more flexibility," says Paulo.
This has consolidated the fintech's expansion. In 2023, the company has already carried out 35 operations, processed more than 3,000 financial assets and recorded a 107% growth in revenue each month. There are 500 qualified investors registered on the platform, 151 of whom are active. The goal is to reach December with 50 originators and R$ 500 million offered.
Regarding the good performance, the CEO says that two factors favour AmFi's operation. The first is that the offer of anticipating receivables from cards or trade bills is not easily available on brokerage platforms.
The second is the vision of the CVM and the Central Bank (BC) to tokenise the Brazilian economy. The embodiment of this trend is Drex, the digital version of the Real, which is beginning to carry out its first transactions in a pilot phase.
"We're on our way to becoming the first country in the world to have a tokenised economy," says Paulo.
About a month ago, Paulo David, co-founder and CEO of AmFi, a credit infrastructure fintech based on blockchain technology, told Finsiders that he was waiting for the 'green light' from the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) to offer his tokens on a crowdfunding platform. Well. This week, the regulator granted authorisation for the company to go ahead with the initiative and distribute its assets publicly.
With the move, the fintech will be able to offer its liquidity pools, which use traditional assets such as card receivables and trade bills as collateral, to be the bridge between fintechs that serve SMEs and seek credit and retail investors, as well as qualified investors.
For companies to be able to distribute the tokens publicly, in addition to operating as crowdfunding platforms, they need to apply for prior authorisation, be registered with the agency and raise up to R$15 million, with a time limit of 180 days.
"Now we can talk openly about what we're doing and carry out the public distribution of assets. We can bring more and more investors to the operations we are structuring," says Paulo, in an exclusive conversation with Finsiders.
In this sense, AmFi is already planning to make its first public offering in September. The parameters of the operation have yet to be defined, but AmFi's entry product is currently a R$1,000 investment. And, according to CVM rules, retail investors can invest up to R$35,000 in the calendar year in offers of this type.
Next year, AmFi plans to add even more technology to its platform. Today, the fintech makes several integrations with the traditional financial system by connecting with banking infrastructures and asset registries. The team has experience in the sector - of the 14 people who make up the technology and product team, each professional has an average of around seven years in the market.
In the pipeline of adjustments to meet CVM requirements, compliance was one of the main aspects affected, in order to identify the risks of operations, which are considered highly complex. Paulo explains that the regulator has signalled positively about building a secondary token market - something along the lines of the SMU Startup Market, which is part of the regulatory sandbox environment.
This type of initiative could bring more liquidity to investors. "For those who sell, what generates the most value for investors is liquidity, since they can get rid of an asset and take advantage of another opportunity. In Brazil, this doesn't exist with receivables. FIDCs [credit rights investment funds] are very rigid. So when we do this with security and control, it's a huge advantage," says AmFi's CEO.
He says that the fintech has been evolving in terms of application and business rules. The next step is to use smart contracts as triggers in operations, putting the full potential of blockchain technology into play to carry out a certain action in the event of a delay in payment by one of the parties, for example.
Another point is that AmFi should make an international launch for foreign funds and investors from the United States. According to the executive, Brazil's high interest rates are attracting the attention of 'gringos'.
"Investors, especially from the US, look very closely at interest rates in Brazil, one of the highest in the world. We anticipate this with a rate of 20 per cent. So it becomes very attractive," says the entrepreneur.
Currently, the fintech has assets with a return of between 17% and 18% per year, but that reaches 30% when it comes to a judicial asset, following the higher degree of risk.
Even with the possibility of reaching retail, AmFi's strategy remains to gain a foothold among qualified investors.
"Retail is not our focus, even though we have a large space. We've focused on qualified investors, with larger operations and a little more flexibility," says Paulo.
This has consolidated the fintech's expansion. In 2023, the company has already carried out 35 operations, processed more than 3,000 financial assets and recorded a 107% growth in revenue each month. There are 500 qualified investors registered on the platform, 151 of whom are active. The goal is to reach December with 50 originators and R$ 500 million offered.
Regarding the good performance, the CEO says that two factors favour AmFi's operation. The first is that the offer of anticipating receivables from cards or trade bills is not easily available on brokerage platforms.
The second is the vision of the CVM and the Central Bank (BC) to tokenise the Brazilian economy. The embodiment of this trend is Drex, the digital version of the Real, which is beginning to carry out its first transactions in a pilot phase.
"We're on our way to becoming the first country in the world to have a tokenised economy," says Paulo.