Mexico’s Kueski Raises Record Round of Funding with Participation from Endeavor Catalyst
Kueski, founded by Adalberto Flores and Leonardo De la Cerda, is the leading online micro-lending platform for Mexico and Latin America.
The first company in Mexico to offer consumer loans purely over the Internet, the company recently closed a $35 million round of equity and debt funding – the largest capital funding in Mexico for a fintech startup. The $10 million equity investment was co-led by investors Richmond Global Ventures, Rise Capital, CrunchFund and Variv Capital, with participation from Endeavor Catalyst.
Kueski will use the funds to accelerate portfolio growth, expand its world-class team and extend its brand presence throughout the region. Based in Guadalajara, Mexico, Kueski offers online loans in Mexico approving and delivering loans in a matter of minutes. Developed by a group of PhDs, Kueski uses a complex risk algorithm based on multiple data sources to assess credit worthiness. The risk model accounts for many factors, including a customer’s social media profile, credit history, and behavior within their website. The company was founded in 2012 and has grown rapidly since launch, achieving better loss rates than a traditional credit card in Mexico.
Peter Kellner, managing partner of Richmond Global Ventures and co-founder of Endeavor, commented: “Mexico is currently experiencing a historical moment in building a strong foundation for the future dominant online lending platforms to be built. Formal credit is not available to 85 percent of the population in Mexico. When you see such an important and large market opportunity being pursued by a world-class analytics team, it was a very easy decision to invest in the company.”
“We feel honored to partner with such an incredible group of investors. Their expertise in emerging markets and online lending businesses will enable our company to advance our market leadership and launch additional products in order to position Kueski as a leader in online lending for all of Latin America,” commented Adalberto Flores, co-founder and CEO of Kueski.
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Endeavor Catalyst is the innovative co-investment fund of Endeavor, set up to invest exclusively in Endeavor Entrepreneur-led companies and to sustain Endeavor’s long-term operations in a mission-aligned way. Since launching in January 2012, Endeavor Catalyst has raised $35M in philanthropically donated and invested capital, and invested over $19M into 34 Endeavor companies in 14 countries. To date, Endeavor Catalyst has co-invested alongside a number of leading venture capital and growth equity funds, including Accel Partners, General Atlantic, NEA, Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global. Investments include Globant (NYSE: GLOB) in Argentina; Yemeksepeti.com (acquired by Delivery Hero) in Turkey and Ruma in Indonesia.
Learn more about Endeavor Catalyst by clicking here.