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Colombian digital lender Addi raises US$ 65 million to expand BNPL in Brazil

May 26, 2021
Por
Carolina Ingizza
Carolina Ingizza
Repórter em EXAME
📷
Finance Colombia
The Colombian company offers physical and digital retailers an interest-free installment payment model that does not require a credit card.
Contenido para Usuarios 🔒

In the last decade, companies like the Swedish Klarna and the American Affirm popularized abroad the concept of "buy now, pay later" (buy now, pay later, in Portuguese). Despite being innovative for foreigners, the model has been known in Brazil for decades as the good old credit card that large retailers offer to their customers. The main difference is the use or not of technology in the operation.

With startups operating in this segment abroad growing at impressive rates, entrepreneurs and investors began to wonder if the “credit 2.0” model could not be brought and adapted to Latin America. After all, in the region, there are millions of people without access to banks and credit. With this ambition, in 2018, Colombian partners Santiago Suarez, Daniel Vallejo and Elmer Ortega created the fintech Addi, which immediately received checks from the Brazilian manager Monashees and the American Andreessen Horowitz to get the operation out of the paper.

Today, with 200 client companies in Colombia and more than 100,000 registered users, the company announces that it has completed the raising of its R $ 350 million (US $ 65 million) B series to invest in expansion in Brazil. Around here, the company launched without an official announcement in the last six months and has already conquered about 50 customers and 5,000 registered users.

The contribution was led by the American Union Square Ventures, which also invests in Twitter and Coinbase. Funds like 8VC, Citius Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, The Marathon Fund and angel investors like Hans Tung (partner at GGV Capital) and Huey Lin (former Affirm chief operating officer) also participated in the round, as did previous investors Andreessen Horowitz , Foundation Capital, Monashees and Quona Capital.

“We couldn't be more excited about partnering with the ADDI team. The company is not only expanding consumer access to point-of-sale credit, but uniquely allowing Latin American merchants to expand their e-commerce businesses, offering their customers convenient payment options that free up capital and increase sales ”, says, in a note, John Buttrick, general partner of Union Square Ventures.

For Monashees, which has followed Addi's operation since the beginning, the company's ability to reinvent itself and grow during the pandemic was one of the central factors that motivated the new investment. “Before covid-19, their operation was very focused on physical retail, but the team and partners quickly managed to structure and expand the digital business front, delivering exponential growth”, says Marcelo Lima, partner of the Brazilian manager, to the EXAM IN.

From January to May this year alone, Addi increased the size of its operation fivefold, intermediating more than 35,000 transactions in Colombia and 1,500 in Brazil. But the metric that most interests the founder and president of the startup, Santiago Suarez, is the rate of how much the company manages to increase the sales volume of its partner stores, currently rotating between 20% and 30%. “Our goal is to make a modern version of“ buy now, pay later ”a reality in Brazil, reaching thousands of customers. But the first step is to show partner retailers the advantage of using our solution ”, says the president.

Integrated with the main e-commerce platforms in the region, such as VTEX, Nuvemshop and WooCommerce, Addi can be placed on the website of any online store in minutes. For customers, from the cover of the site, through the ads to the shopping cart, notices appear talking about the possibility of paying with fintech.

To make the purchase, the person only needs to present a contact information and a document - the company's technology does the credit analysis and identity verification in seconds and releases or not the installment purchase without interest. To the shopkeeper, the payment amount is transferred on the spot, but customers have a few months to pay fintech for the purchase using a bank slip, bank transaction or Pix.

The company's goal is to gradually participate in the online transactions of end customers. To improve this relationship, in the coming months the company will launch its own application, where it will be possible to monitor the sites that use the solution and open accounts.

The partners' objective is, within 24 months, to reach the R $ 1 billion traded mark. “In the future, we plan to work with other products, such as loyalty, and offer our authentication services separately. But today, we are focused on growing our processing solution in the Brazilian and Colombian market, ”says cofounder Vallejo.

Las opiniones compartidas y expresadas por los analistas son libres e independientes, y de ellas son responsables sus autores. No reflejan ni comprometen el pensamiento u opinión de Latam Fintech Hub, por lo cual no pueden ser interpretadas como recomendaciones emitidas por la platafomra. Esta plataforma es un espacio abierto para promover la diversidad de puntos de vista sobre el ecosistema Fintech.

In the last decade, companies like the Swedish Klarna and the American Affirm popularized abroad the concept of "buy now, pay later" (buy now, pay later, in Portuguese). Despite being innovative for foreigners, the model has been known in Brazil for decades as the good old credit card that large retailers offer to their customers. The main difference is the use or not of technology in the operation.

With startups operating in this segment abroad growing at impressive rates, entrepreneurs and investors began to wonder if the “credit 2.0” model could not be brought and adapted to Latin America. After all, in the region, there are millions of people without access to banks and credit. With this ambition, in 2018, Colombian partners Santiago Suarez, Daniel Vallejo and Elmer Ortega created the fintech Addi, which immediately received checks from the Brazilian manager Monashees and the American Andreessen Horowitz to get the operation out of the paper.

Today, with 200 client companies in Colombia and more than 100,000 registered users, the company announces that it has completed the raising of its R $ 350 million (US $ 65 million) B series to invest in expansion in Brazil. Around here, the company launched without an official announcement in the last six months and has already conquered about 50 customers and 5,000 registered users.

The contribution was led by the American Union Square Ventures, which also invests in Twitter and Coinbase. Funds like 8VC, Citius Capital, Endeavor Catalyst, The Marathon Fund and angel investors like Hans Tung (partner at GGV Capital) and Huey Lin (former Affirm chief operating officer) also participated in the round, as did previous investors Andreessen Horowitz , Foundation Capital, Monashees and Quona Capital.

“We couldn't be more excited about partnering with the ADDI team. The company is not only expanding consumer access to point-of-sale credit, but uniquely allowing Latin American merchants to expand their e-commerce businesses, offering their customers convenient payment options that free up capital and increase sales ”, says, in a note, John Buttrick, general partner of Union Square Ventures.

For Monashees, which has followed Addi's operation since the beginning, the company's ability to reinvent itself and grow during the pandemic was one of the central factors that motivated the new investment. “Before covid-19, their operation was very focused on physical retail, but the team and partners quickly managed to structure and expand the digital business front, delivering exponential growth”, says Marcelo Lima, partner of the Brazilian manager, to the EXAM IN.

From January to May this year alone, Addi increased the size of its operation fivefold, intermediating more than 35,000 transactions in Colombia and 1,500 in Brazil. But the metric that most interests the founder and president of the startup, Santiago Suarez, is the rate of how much the company manages to increase the sales volume of its partner stores, currently rotating between 20% and 30%. “Our goal is to make a modern version of“ buy now, pay later ”a reality in Brazil, reaching thousands of customers. But the first step is to show partner retailers the advantage of using our solution ”, says the president.

Integrated with the main e-commerce platforms in the region, such as VTEX, Nuvemshop and WooCommerce, Addi can be placed on the website of any online store in minutes. For customers, from the cover of the site, through the ads to the shopping cart, notices appear talking about the possibility of paying with fintech.

To make the purchase, the person only needs to present a contact information and a document - the company's technology does the credit analysis and identity verification in seconds and releases or not the installment purchase without interest. To the shopkeeper, the payment amount is transferred on the spot, but customers have a few months to pay fintech for the purchase using a bank slip, bank transaction or Pix.

The company's goal is to gradually participate in the online transactions of end customers. To improve this relationship, in the coming months the company will launch its own application, where it will be possible to monitor the sites that use the solution and open accounts.

The partners' objective is, within 24 months, to reach the R $ 1 billion traded mark. “In the future, we plan to work with other products, such as loyalty, and offer our authentication services separately. But today, we are focused on growing our processing solution in the Brazilian and Colombian market, ”says cofounder Vallejo.

Las opiniones compartidas y expresadas por los analistas son libres e independientes, y solamente sus autores son responsables de ellas. No reflejan ni comprometen el pensamiento o la opinión del equipo de Latam Fintech Hub y, por lo tanto, no pueden interpretarse como recomendaciones emitidas por la plataforma. Esta plataforma es un espacio abierto para promover la diversidad de puntos de vista en el ecosistema Fintech.

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