San Francisco-based debt investor Community Investment Management provided $75 million financing to Mexico City-based Jeeves, a fintech company for small and medium-sized businesses in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and at least 17 other Latin American countries.
The new credit facility will support Jeeves’ push into Brazil, where 60% of businesses lack sufficient access to credit, with the introduction of its Jeeves Pay product to Brazilian businesses. Jeeves Pay enables cross-border payments from Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil to dozens of countries, including China and the USA. Jeeves’ payment volumes have jumped by more than 150% year to date.
Credit access
CIM provides asset-backed credit facilities for financial technology companies that have achieved product market fit and are ready to scale. Additionally, fintechs in the portfolio are using data to better access risk and serve underserved parts of the market.
CIM has made at least 8 investments in Latin America, predominantly in Mexico, and plans to double or triple its exposure to the region over the next five years.
“The gap in credit access in the region is still very large,” CIM’s Elena Amato told ImpactAlpha in an earlier video interview. “There’s so much to be done, not only from the angle of impact and financial inclusion, but also there are a lot of aggressive returns to be made in the region.”
