Online Credit Marketplace FinanZero raises US$ 7 million in a new round led by Swedish investors to further expand in Brazil

São Paulo, Brazil, April 2021 – FinanZero, (finanzero.com.br), Brazil’s leading online credit marketplace, announces today that it has closed a US$ 7 million funding round in its fourth round of funding. The round was led by the Swedish investors VEF, Dunross & Co, and Atlant Fonder, all previous investors in the company. The use of proceeds will primarily go towards marketing, product development, and hiring new talent.

Thanks to its transparent value proposition, FinanZero empowers consumers to choose the loan that best fits their financial needs by comparing multiple offers from a network of 50 lenders in one search. With a surge in demand for consumer loans amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Finanzero’s volume of credit applications has grown exponentially for the past months, and FinanZero is now the leading online credit marketplace in Brazil. 

 FinanZero was founded in 2016 by Swedish-Brazilian investment firm Webrock Ventures (www.webrockventures.com) and Swedish entrepreneurs Olle Widén and Kristian Jakobsson. In total, FinanZero has raised US$ 22.85 million since 2016 and the largest shareholders today are Webrock Ventures and VEF (previously Vostok Emerging Finance). 

The digitalization of Brazil’s financial services saw a step-change in adoption during 2020, and the online lending market continues to expand rapidly. According to CB Insights, VC investments into fintech startups in Latin America have increased from $50 million in 2014 to $2.1 billion in 2020 across 139 deals. As fintech disruption has led to a more attractive value proposition for consumers, incumbent banks are forced to follow in their footsteps and digitalize their lending process. FinanZero is strategically positioned to benefit from the digital transition taking place in the lending ecosystem. 

Comment from Olle Widén, Co-Founder, and CEO at FinanZero: "The volume of credit applications on our platform continues to grow exponentially, with an average of 750,000 applications per month, generated to our 50+ lending partners. Our mission is to empower Brazilian consumers by providing more transparency through a one-stop-shop for loans, and we are seeing great traction in a time in which digital transition and favorable regulatory changes are taking place. We raised funds to capitalize on this market opportunity.”

 Olle continues: “We are democratizing access to the credit market by offering more accessible loans to consumers who previously had a hard time receiving financing due to a lack of information and weak credit scoring analysis. With FinanZero’s algorithms, we ensure greater security to lenders when deciding whether to grant or deny a loan." 

Comment from David Nangle, CEO at VEF:  "Backing our portfolio companies and their founding teams harder, when they are delivering the kind of growth and value creation that FinanZero is, is one of the easiest decisions we make as investors. Olle and the team at FinanZero are at a really exciting point in their journey and with this additional capital, we are very excited that they can continue their path to being the leading credit marketplace in one of the clearest scale opportunities in Brazilian Fintech."

About FinanZero

Founded in 2016, FinanZero is Brazil’s leading online credit marketplace for Personal Loans, Car Equity, and Home Equity. The company acts as an independent broker for loans, negotiating the customer’s loan with several banks and credit institutions at once to find the loan with the best interest rate and terms for the consumer. Headquartered in Sao Paulo, FinanZero currently has 52 employees. finanzero.com.br.