Brazilian fintech startup Creditas buys Andorra’s Andbank after raising $200 million in new funding
Nickie Louise
Posted On July 8, 2022
Creditas, the second biggest fintech startup in Brazil, is buying a bank and a mortgage startup after raising $200 million in new funding from investors. The announcement comes just six months after the SoftBank-backed startup raised $260 million in funding at a valuation of $4.8 billion.
In an interview with Reuters, Creditas CEO Sergio Furio said the startup is acquiring the Brazilian banking license of Andbank, the oldest commercial bank that provides a wide range of banking services to private and corporate clients in Andorra and has $30 billion under management
The deal, which is valued at $100 million, still has to be approved by Brazil’s central bank and antitrust watchdog CADE. Before the latest fundraising, Creditas previously funded itself only through the capital markets. In a statement, Furio told Reuters, “Getting retail deposits as a new alternative for funding will improve our margins.”
As part of the acquisition agreement, Andbank will continue operating in Brazil as a broker-dealer and asset manager while Creditas will distribute products from its credit portfolio to Andbank investors. In addition, Andbank will also become a minority shareholder in Creditas.
As we reported back in January, Andbank also participated in a $50 million extension of the funding round Series F, in which Creditas raised $260 million at a $4.8 billion valuation in January.
In the same interview, Andbank CEO Carlos Aso said, “selling the banking license will reduce its capital needs, allowing growth in private banking and wealth management.”
Founded in 2012 by Sergio Furio, a Spanish former consultant, the Sao Paulo, Brazil-based Creditas operates a digital platform providing secured loans and low-interest rates. The fintech startup provides credit lines to people shunned by Brazil’s biggest lenders. specialized in loans secured by assets like homes, autos, and salaries, credit lines shunned by Brazil’s biggest lenders. The startup was formerly called BankFacil before it changed its name to Creditas.
To date, Creditas has raised a total of $830 million in funding from investors including SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T), Fidelity Investments, Wellington Management, QED Investors, Kaszek, VEF, and Santander fund InnoVentures. Furio said Creditas’ first-half revenue surged threefold from a year ago to 820 million reais.
As uncertainty mounts for tech companies amid concerns that the U.S. Federal Reserve might raise the interest rates to control the spiraling inflation, Furio said the startup decided to raise more capital to safeguard its growth this year and next year.
