With these resources, Finaktiva seeks to strengthen new verticals in its digital financial services platform for entrepreneurs and SMEs.
Medellin, July 2021– Finaktiva, the leading digital financial services platform for entrepreneurs and SMEs in Colombia, has raised more than US $8 million in equity and debt to strengthen the new products of its digital financial services platform for entrepreneurs and SMEs, in addition to the launch of its partnership with Sura Asset Management to finance SMEs for +US $100 million.
Acumen LatAm Impact Ventures (ALIVE), an impact investment fund management firm sponsored by Acumen, led the +US$3 million equity bridge round with the participation of Conny & Co AG (Swiss investment fund focused on high growth potential markets), Trinity Capital, Invictum Capital, Andeo and leading local investors. With these resources, Finaktiva seeks to grow its new factoring and confirming verticals.
“These new resources will allow Finaktiva to further complement its value offering, by becoming a comprehensive solution to the financing and liquidity needs of businesses with more future than history. During the COVID-19 pandemic, entrepreneurs and small businesses suffered severe liquidity constraints and experienced difficulties in collecting their receivables. Based on this situation and following our roadmap to evolve from a lending platform to a suite of digital financial services, we decided to build a robust factoring and confirming solution to provide liquidity on receivables in the value chains of companies”, said Pablo Santos, Founder and CEO of Finaktiva.
Since its founding in 2017, Finaktiva has focused on financing the growth of SMEs with more future than history, using technology to understand each stage of the maturity of the businesses, starting with flexible credit solutions targeted at the startup segment and continuing with scaleup and scalers segments. Through its digital financial services platform, entrepreneurs and SMEs can access credit solutions, factoring, debt funds, and non-financial support tools.
In addition, the fintech managed to materialize new debt funding of more than US$5 million from leading players such as Yunus Social Business, Bancoldex, and local financial groups. This funding capital is complemented by the start of operations of Finaktiva’s strategic alliance with Sura Asset Management, which seeks to further support the SME segment with digital credit operations by providing resources of up to US$100 million.
To date, Finaktiva has provided financing services to more than 1,000 high-potential SMEs, with a multi-sectoral approach including new economy sectors such as green business, technology-based industries, and creative sectors. Finaktiva focuses on companies with at least one year of formal operation and revenues above USD 27 k. Half of Finaktiva’s clients had their first credit experience with the company.
In Latin America, SMEs represent 99.5% of companies and employ at least 67% of the working population regionally. However, their access to financing is limited, accounting for only 12% of the region’s total credit. The overall funding gap for SMEs is estimated at USD 1,2 trillion. As of 2020, 52% of SMEs in the region did not have access to financing. Finaktiva is helping to bridge the financing gap in the region and fostering economic growth by providing access to capital to SMEs.
“We are extremely proud to be partnering with Finaktiva and support the catalytic work the company is doing by supporting the growth of high impact companies across Colombia. A work that is even more relevant and impactful in today’s context where SMEs have been hit the hardest by the pandemic crisis and where access to financing has never been so important to reactivate our economy “, said Santiago Álvarez, Managing Partner of ALIVE, who will join Finaktiva’s board of directors.
Pablo Santos, CEO and co-founder of Finaktiva, is a successful Colombian entrepreneur with an impressive track record building one of the fastest-growing digital financing platforms in Colombia.
“We believe in the transformative power of companies with more future than history, those that are transforming industries and generating positive impact in their environment, and we are sure that they will be the protagonists in the LATAM economy. We are aware of the driving force of capital, so we want to deliver, in an agile and flexible way, the most powerful fuel for entrepreneurs to conquer space with their rockets. We are very happy to have the ALIVE team by our side, a wonderful partner that shares our vision and will be a great support in the race to achieve our higher purpose”, commented Pablo Santos, CEO of Finaktiva.