B2B payments and financing company Tribal Credit announced its expansion plans in Latin America, with operations starting in Colombia, Peru, and Chile next month.
The expansion comes at a moment of significant development and momentum for Tribal Credit, which has seen more than 50x growth in LatAm since early 2021, serving many of the fastest-growing small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Mexico.
“In Latin America, we see issues of access to affordable credit, global payments, and remittances for businesses in many countries, where it’s still difficult to obtain savings accounts and debit cards. We decided to enter these markets to offer a comprehensive payment solution that helps boost the growth of these companies in a digital, fast, and secure way,” said Sonia Michaca, Tribal Regional Manager for Latin America.
Sixty-two million SMBs are transacting globally every year, with the LatAm region representing a $175 billion market opportunity led by Mexico—Tribal Credit’s biggest market.
San Francisco-based Tribal Credit closed a combined Series A and debt round of $34.3 million last April, which fueled their expansion into Mexico. QED Investors and Partners led the investment for Growth (PFG). Existing seed investors BECO Capital, Global Ventures, OTG Ventures, and Endure Capital also participated in the round.
Using a proprietary, AI-driven approval process, Tribal provides a suite of financial services to help SMBs in Latin America pay expenses and optimize their financial management, including multi-currency corporate VISA cards with spend controls, credit lines for on-card purchases, and payroll service for employees and contractors.
A 2020 KPMG study found 80% of large companies worldwide are increasing their digitization exponentially as face-to-face operations dwindled in the aftermath of Covid-19. Accordingly, Latin American companies have invested about 45% in Information Technology and 38% in the acquisition of cloud storage. Predictions for 2023 show that 75% of organizations will undergo digital transformation, up by 27% from 2020.
Tribal Credit is currently building a local team in Colombia and will continue to seek more talent in Chile and Peru during the first quarter of 2022. The company already has top customers, including Grupo Anderson, Ben & Frank, Mora Mora, Cerveza Rrëy, SkyAlert, Chop Chop Bikes, and Wax Revolution in Mexico; Mi Águila, Frubana, and TUL in Colombia and Crehana in Peru.
Tribal Credit beta launched in December 2019, offering corporate cards and a spend management platform for startups and SMBs in emerging markets. With the increased demand for more efficient online B2B banking experiences, especially at the onset of the pandemic, they expanded their payments and financing products to include Tribal Pay, helping customers settle non-card purchases and benefit from extended payment terms.
With expertise honed at leading tech companies and financial institutions, Tribal Credit’s founding team of serial entrepreneurs, data scientists, and financial execs have built and scaled startups in emerging markets and the U.S. To spearhead its growth as it rises across markets, the company attracted a global management team of former leaders from HSBC, Visa, Experian, Mercado Libre, American Express, Nubank, Marqeta, Didi Pay, among other leading startups and top financial institutions.
