ImpactAlpha, May 8 — R2 has secured a $100 million from San Francisco-based impact investor Community Investment Management. The Mexico City-based venture provides back-end lending infrastructure and capital to companies like Colombian online farmers’ market Frubana to extend credit to their small business customers.
R2 has facilitated more than $20 million in loans to 6,000 businesses in Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Ecuador.
“In Latin America, creditworthy small and medium businesses continue to be overlooked by traditional financial institutions because they can’t leverage granular enough data to properly assess SMB risk,” said Community Investment Management’s Elena Tchouvasheva Amato.
Inclusive lending
Embedded finance from logistics, e-commerce and software companies emerged as a compelling solution during the pandemic as millions of informal brick and mortar businesses shifted online out of necessity.
Capital from R2 to such ventures supports entrepreneurs like Francisco Rodriguez, a mini market owner who has secured more than $40,000 in loans and grown monthly sales 400% since 2021.