MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Chilean Credit Reporting Firm Destacame Raises Seed Equity from Accion Venture Lab to Expand into Mexico

Destacame, a Chile-based credit scoring firm, recently announced that it has closed its seed round of financing, which was led by Accion Venture Lab, a USD 10 million investment vehicle of US-based NGO Accion. The funds are slated to allow Destacame to increase its operations in Chile and expand into Mexico during 2017. Accion previously provided advisory services to Destacame through its Catalyst Fund.

Destacame assesses creditworthiness based on 12 months of people’s payment histories. It then provides credit scores to lenders, which they may use to decide whether to “extend credit and other financial products to thin-file and credit-invisible customers.” The company employs 15 people as of 2017. Since Destacame was launched in 2015, it has processed approximately 10,000 credit applications.

Accion is a private, US-based nonprofit organization with the mission of alleviating poverty by offering financial products such as microenterprise loans and business training. Accion was founded in 1961 and issued its first microloan in 1973 in Brazil. Accion’s partner microfinance institutions provide loans to men and women entrepreneurs through 64 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in 32 countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia. As of 2015, Accion and its partner MFIs have an aggregate loan portfolio of USD 7.9 billion serving 6 million borrowers. As of 2016, Accion reported total assets of USD 351 million.

By Phoebe Rorke, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Fintech Start-Up Destacame Closes Seed Funding Round to Expand Access to Credit in Latin America

Accion Venture Lab Invests in Alternative Credit Scoring Firm Aire

Accion Financial Report 2015

Destacame

Accion Venture Lab financial profile on Destacame

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