Brazil fintech startup Avante has raised $12 million from Gentera and Vox Capital.
Since 2012, Avante has lent more than $31 million to 30,000 clients, half of them previously unbanked.
The Brazilian digital lender and financial services provider to micro-entrepreneurs says it will use the new funding to expand from 125 to 2,000 credits agents by 2021 and reach one million microenterprises, which number between 25 to 45 million nationwide.
Fiinlab, the innovation lab of Mexican holding company Gentera, formerly Compartamos, led the new investment; Brazilian impact fund Vox Capital, Avante’s first investor back in 2014, also participated, as did other previous investors including Polish-Brazilian business magnate Raphael Klein, one of Brazil’s wealthiest businessman.
“Our thesis on investments in financial services is oriented to the development of new products and distribution channels appropriate to the reality of low-income people in Brazil,” said Gilberto Ribeiro, a partner at Vox Capital.
With the new investment round, Avante is said to be worth more than $82 million. In April, Vox Capital backed education startup Aondê.
