After the first few months of operation, Barte, a B2B payments fintech for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), reached R$20 million in transactions on its platform by March. From then on, moving forward meant maturing the acquisition channels, the payment product and the credit vertical. Now, the third pillar of this strategy is beginning to take shape.
This Wednesday (8), fintech announces that it has just raised R$ 20 million through debentures. This is the third financing in 12 months, after rounds of capital: R$16 million in March and another R$6.5 million in November 2021.
With the debenture, structured and coordinated by fintech Bamboo , which has just received authorisation from the CVM to coordinate public offerings, Barte plans to expand its credit vertical. This year, the company has already released R$60 million and expects to reach R$100 million in December.
"Our payments platform has grown. So we have a better and better understanding of the areas where we really needed to develop the product to add more and more value and for our customers to not only use it, but to join Barte, expand its use and recommend it to others," says Caetano Lacerda. Caetano Lacerda, CEO and co-founder of Barte, tells Finsiders.
For the next year, the fintech aims to increase its revenues by a factor of five. This does not mean, of course, that fintechs will start lending on a large scale. Especially since interest rates of 12.25% in Brazil and between 5.25% and 5.50% in the US do not allow such a practice.
According to the entrepreneur, credit origination is the result of day-to-day work. In practice, this means that new lending opportunities are identified from the payments area. Data is therefore key. Building a healthy offer involves credit scores, which in turn depend on the company's payment information.
"Our targeting is based much more on the company's revenue, on volumes processed and not necessarily on credit originated," he says. "We like to be conservative in credit policies. Our credit is a second condition, a second-order condition on top of the payment product, where we start."
At the other end of the spectrum, resources are used by SMEs to split a transaction with customers, pay suppliers or new investments aimed at growth. The money is for short-term objectives, over a period of a few months, which varies by industry.
Barte gained momentum in the market with a business platform that combines payments and access to capital, to solve the liquidity and cash flow bottleneck of SMEs - in fact, you read their story first hand in Finsiders in July last year.
By the end of 2022, the startup's goal was to grow 10x in 12 months. "We did all this and even more than expected," says the CEO. In fact, the development is by no means dispensable. In the last seven months, revenues have increased 15-fold; however, the company does not disclose absolute figures.
"With our growth, Barte is an increasingly sustainable company. In other words, our economic thesis is working, our business fundamentals are still in place," says Caetano.
The need to combine product development with cash flow is a clear symptom of the "startup winter". For Caetano, after the resource boom between 2020 and 2021 and last year's drastic correction, the sector is starting to become more rational again.
In this scenario, will Barte be able to raise its fourth fundraising in the coming months? The CEO understands that this is "an evolving point". "We raise two shares, one to establish a product and one to strengthen product development, build our acquisition machine and bring the lending arm to maturity," he says.
"We understand that an acceleration makes sense, with the right partners and the right profiles to bring to the party's journey, we consider it. It's never quite closed and never quite open."
After the first few months of operation, Barte, a B2B payments fintech for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), reached R$20 million in transactions on its platform by March. From then on, moving forward meant maturing the acquisition channels, the payment product and the credit vertical. Now, the third pillar of this strategy is beginning to take shape.
This Wednesday (8), fintech announces that it has just raised R$ 20 million through debentures. This is the third financing in 12 months, after rounds of capital: R$16 million in March and another R$6.5 million in November 2021.
With the debenture, structured and coordinated by fintech Bamboo , which has just received authorisation from the CVM to coordinate public offerings, Barte plans to expand its credit vertical. This year, the company has already released R$60 million and expects to reach R$100 million in December.
"Our payments platform has grown. So we have a better and better understanding of the areas where we really needed to develop the product to add more and more value and for our customers to not only use it, but to join Barte, expand its use and recommend it to others," says Caetano Lacerda. Caetano Lacerda, CEO and co-founder of Barte, tells Finsiders.
For the next year, the fintech aims to increase its revenues by a factor of five. This does not mean, of course, that fintechs will start lending on a large scale. Especially since interest rates of 12.25% in Brazil and between 5.25% and 5.50% in the US do not allow such a practice.
According to the entrepreneur, credit origination is the result of day-to-day work. In practice, this means that new lending opportunities are identified from the payments area. Data is therefore key. Building a healthy offer involves credit scores, which in turn depend on the company's payment information.
"Our targeting is based much more on the company's revenue, on volumes processed and not necessarily on credit originated," he says. "We like to be conservative in credit policies. Our credit is a second condition, a second-order condition on top of the payment product, where we start."
At the other end of the spectrum, resources are used by SMEs to split a transaction with customers, pay suppliers or new investments aimed at growth. The money is for short-term objectives, over a period of a few months, which varies by industry.
Barte gained momentum in the market with a business platform that combines payments and access to capital, to solve the liquidity and cash flow bottleneck of SMEs - in fact, you read their story first hand in Finsiders in July last year.
By the end of 2022, the startup's goal was to grow 10x in 12 months. "We did all this and even more than expected," says the CEO. In fact, the development is by no means dispensable. In the last seven months, revenues have increased 15-fold; however, the company does not disclose absolute figures.
"With our growth, Barte is an increasingly sustainable company. In other words, our economic thesis is working, our business fundamentals are still in place," says Caetano.
The need to combine product development with cash flow is a clear symptom of the "startup winter". For Caetano, after the resource boom between 2020 and 2021 and last year's drastic correction, the sector is starting to become more rational again.
In this scenario, will Barte be able to raise its fourth fundraising in the coming months? The CEO understands that this is "an evolving point". "We raise two shares, one to establish a product and one to strengthen product development, build our acquisition machine and bring the lending arm to maturity," he says.
"We understand that an acceleration makes sense, with the right partners and the right profiles to bring to the party's journey, we consider it. It's never quite closed and never quite open."