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Credix Announces $11.25 Million Series A Funding Round
On the way to building the future of global credit markets, the global fintech aims to expand beyond Brazil and reach more than US$ 100 million in assets under management
São Paulo - Credix, a blockchain-based platform that connects institutional investors globally with loan originators in emerging markets, today announced an $11.25 million Series A funding round. The round was co-led by leading financial technology investor Motive Partners’ Early Stage fund and ParaFi Capital, with participation from Valor Capital Group, Victory Park Capital, MGG Investment Group, Circle Ventures, Abra, Fuse Capital, Claure Group and private investor Ricardo Villela Marino (Chairman of Itau LatAm). The new resources come to fuel further advancements in the company's technology, building a global credit infrastructure, investing in talent, and also exploring strategic opportunities with institutional investors and borrowers.
At the end of 2021, Credix raised a $2.5 million seed round and launched in Brazil. Today, the company has over 25 funds actively using the platform and deals with Brazilian companies such as A55, Provi, Tecredi, Descontanet, Divibank and Adiante. To-date, these loan originators have received over $20 million in financing through the platform. With the new investment, Credix aims to grow its team to over 25 people, which will result in faster product growth, development and rollout of new features. By the end of the year, the company also aims to expand beyond Brazil and launch in Mexico and Colombia, connecting with more institutional investors and loan originators, representing more than $ 100 million in assets under management.
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“This Series A investment is truly strategic for us, attracting the best-in-class from the world of traditional finance and crypto. We are bringing onboard partners with deep expertise in emerging markets, private credit, and organized finance in order to build a scalable financial technology infrastructure,” said Thomas Bohner, Founder and CEO of Credix. “Furthermore, we want to scale our markets, from fintechs to themed markets, to syndicated markets and geographical markets. This investment will allow us to stay ahead of the competition and keep innovation on tech and legal aspects,” he added.
Incorporated in November 2021, Credix connects institutional investors worldwide with fintechs in emerging markets, such as Latin America. This includes both multi-billion-dollar funds and high-net-worth individuals who previously had no access to this type of investment opportunity. The platform users can invest actively or passively depending on their investment preference. In the first case, investors can analyze and underwrite deals one by one, for which they can anticipate a return of more than 20% per year. Passive investors invest in the liquidity pool, a combination of several deals with lower risk, but also lower returns (about 12% per annum).
“Valor has been investing in the fintech space for over a decade now and understands the existing inefficiencies created by legacy systems and processes in financial markets. Blockchain and especially DeFi have the potential to create a more scalable, efficient, and cheaper financial markets infrastructure. We strongly believe that Credix is the best-positioned player to capture this opportunity”, said Michael Nicklas, Managing Partner at Valor Capital Group. “With this investment, Credix will be able to accelerate its pipeline of fintech clients and institutional investors, continuing to build a next-generation global infrastructure. Bridging DeFi with traditional markets is a key component of our crypto thesis, and we are happy to be a key partner for Credix in this journey,” he added.
BLOCKCHAIN-BASED PLATFORM
All deals - loans to the fintechs - that appear on Credix are previously extensively screened by the local Credix team. This way the investor has access to all information to be able to make an informed investment decision. The fintech gets the stablecoins in its crypto wallet and then converts them into the local currency before disbursing loans to its end borrowers.
More and more investors are betting on crypto and stablecoins, a trend that is being picked up by banks and large funds worldwide. Regulation is evolving and more and more promising applications are now effectively starting to see the light of day. Credix is an example of this.
“We see significant potential in applying the technology principals developed across the crypto ecosystem to solve real world challenges. The Credix platform is an early mover in this ambition, providing underserved fintech lenders with faster, more flexible access to global capital and giving global investors diversified exposure to attractive credit opportunities that are otherwise hard to efficiently access and underwrite. We have been impressed by the ability and ambition of the Credix team, and are excited to bring the strength of the Motive Partners platform to accelerate the team’s already impressive growth and help to build the first truly institutional-grade platform in this space,” said Thomas Harris, Vice President at Motive Partners’ Early Stage fund.
“Credix aims to bring institutional investors to DeFi by creating global, regulatory-compliant fixed income markets built on the blockchain. ParaFi was a seed investor in Credix and is proud to invest in the team again in this financing round. We’ve been impressed with the team's execution and deep understanding of institutional credit markets. We believe Credix is rebuilding an antiquated system through blockchain technology and solving a real-world problem at a critical time for the industry,” said Ben Forman, Managing Partner at ParaFi Capital.
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