Brazilian fintech startup QI Tech secured a $200 million funding in a landmark deal, marking one of many largest funding rounds for Brazilian startups this 12 months and one of many few substantial Latin American fairness investments in 2023.
At a time when the enterprise capital market remains to be looking for to get well from its lowest ranges in two years, Sao-Paulo-based QI Tech managed to lift a big quantity for a Sequence-B spherical. Development fairness investor Common Atlantic led the funding. The U.S. fund can also be invested in regional corporations like Unico, Kavak, and QuintoAndar. Throughout Capital, which was already an investor in QI Tech, additionally participated.
The fintech didn’t disclose its valuation after the funding. Nevertheless it was the biggest spherical introduced by a Brazilian startup this 12 months, in response to native media studies. It surpassed Gympass’ $85 million funding earlier within the 12 months. Elsewhere in Latin America, Mexican fintechs Klar and Konfio had seen sizable investments in debt in the course of the third quarter ($100 and $90 million, respectively). Essentially the most vital series-B spherical within the earlier interval was that of Nomad, additionally a fintech in Brazil, which raised $62 million.
QI Tech, a finance infrastructure supplier
The corporate, based in 2018, offers tech infrastructure for credit score, banking, funds, collections, anti-fraud monitoring, and buyer onboarding. It’s a part of a brand new era of fintechs which have grown in recent times to create much-needed digital infrastructure. Firms like QI Tech allow fintechs and non-financial corporations to simply combine on-line cost instruments, additional boosting digitization.
“With the mission of decentralizing credit score from main banks, QI Tech presents a whole set of APIs that allows any firm to supply monetary merchandise to their prospects,” the corporate mentioned in a press launch.
The funding spherical is sort of vital for a Sequence B. To place it in perspective, Nubank, the Brazilian neobank and a number one fintech in Brazil, raised $30 million in its Sequence B spherical in 2015 earlier than attaining unicorn standing afterward.
“QI Tech is seizing a wonderful alternative by offering high-quality monetary infrastructure to shoppers in numerous sectors,” Luiz Ribeiro, a managing director at Atlantic’s workplace within the South American nation, mentioned. “It advantages from an growing adoption of credit score and digital penetration in Brazil.”
QI Tech had beforehand raised $50 million in a Sequence-A again in 2021. On the time, the funding was led by Singapore’s Sovereign Funding Fund (GIC).
The agency plans to leverage the brand new capital to discover merger and acquisition alternatives. “We are going to use the brand new capital to strengthen our management place in Brazil, executing an aggressive progress technique for every enterprise unit, and remaining attentive to potential M&A alternatives,” Pedro Mac Dowell, CEO of QI Tech and a co-founder, mentioned.
Fintech funding has but to choose up
Whereas the corporate has mentioned its new capital will gasoline acquisitions, executives floated the concept of an Preliminary Public Providing down the road, though present market circumstances present little urge for food in the mean time for such operations.
QI Tech’s funding comes at a time when funding funding for Latin American startups is scarce. After a number of years of record-high investments within the sector, there was a noticeable decline in funding alternatives in current quarters, though present ranges are nonetheless considerably larger than in pre-Covid occasions.
Nevertheless, there have been early indicators of funding flows stabilizing earlier this 12 months. Whereas they haven’t absolutely rebounded but, the third quarter did witness substantial funding rounds, and in response to information by Itaú BBA, complete investments reached $1.3 billion within the quarter, down simply 15% from the year-ago interval.
