Small businesses in rapidly developing economies like Brazil have a hard time obtaining bank loans. They can be incredibly expensive, with interest rates that can reach 100% per year. As a result, many companies turn to smaller lending firms for funding. Over $10 billion has been loaned by these firms; they charge lower interest rates than traditional banks. Before this, international capital was nearly impossible to obtain— forcing these companies to seek funding from alternate sources.
Credix is a Belgian fintech company that connects global investors with lenders from developing countries. In order to do this, Credix received €11.32M in funding from Motive Partners and ParaFi Capital— both American investment firms. Additionally, Valor Capital, Victory Park Capital, MGG Investment Group, Circle Ventures, Abra and Fuse Capital participated in the series A round funding. Additionally, Ricardo Villa Marina — the chairman of Itau LatAm — was an angel investor in the round.
Fund Usage
Credix claims that several emerging market credit companies borrowed over €25M through the platform in the last few months. The additional funds allow the startup company to cross the $100M mark and expand into Colombia and Mexico.
The MarketPlace was launched in 2021 by Thomas Bohner as CEO, Chaim Finizola as CGO, Maxim Piessen as CTO and Finizola. It connects investors with emerging market credit companies that have limited and expensive access to bank loans.
Crypto Investment
Investors in the cryptocurrency market utilize their investment to enter emerging markets. After this, credit companies give out loans to their end users. Before doing so, they receive stable coins in their crypto portfolio that are one-to-one linked to US dollars and don’t fluctuate in value. After receiving these coins, the company converts them into the local currency in their crypto portfolio.
Credix CEO Thomas Bohner considers this Series A investment to be extremely important. It attracted top-tier members from both the traditional finance and crypto worlds. With the help of its partners, Credix aims to develop scalable financial technology infrastructure. Their goal is to develop markets for fintech, geographic locations and themed markets— in addition to syndicated and private credit markets. Bohner believes Credix can maintain a competitive edge with this funding, allowing them to continue innovating in both tech and legal fields.
Michael Nicklas is the Managing Partner of Valor Capital Group. He’s invested in fintech for over a decade, and believes that the current financial system is riddled with inefficiencies. DeFi — or decentralized finance — has the potential to fix these issues by providing an inexpensive and scalable alternative to legacy systems. Credix is the best candidate to capitalize on this opportunity, according to Nicklas. Credix’s partnership with Chainfinance allows them to further their DeFi clients and institutional investors. This is an essential component of Chainfinace’s crypto thesis, and they’re pleased to work with Credix as a key partner.
