Brazilian digital credit startup receives US$4.2 million investment to accelerate new products

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Mutual, one of Brazil’s main digital credit platforms, has received a R$22 (US$4.2) million investment from the sale of part of its anti-fraud technology subsidiary to a group of international entrepreneurs.

“We want to accelerate technology for the use of digital credit in Brazil and by the end of 2022 we will launch 6 new products to start offering new types of financing,” announced Mutual’s co-founder and co-CEO Marciliano Freitas.

According to the executive, these new credit products will be financed by investment funds, banks, and even individuals, through the Mutual Invest platform.

In addition to the lines currently available, such as solar energy financing, personal loans and working capital for businesses, Mutual’s next credit investment offerings will be receivables-based business loans and financing for individuals with collateral (car, property and guarantor).

One of Mutual’s newest credit modalities is solar energy financing. Launched in December last year, the fintech expects to close the year with over 50 thousand loans for the installation of solar panels on homes, commercial establishments, and rural properties.

The fintech uses a proprietary methodology called CAERF (Credit, Automated, Scalable, Returnable and Funding) to determine which segments of the credit market it will develop new technologies.

“The premise is that only products whose technology allows us to deliver a simple credit experience, highly scalable, with fair interest rates to the borrower and that yields a financial return to investors will be developed,” points out Mutual’s Co-CEO Victor Fernandes.

The funding came with the sale of part of Mutual’s stake in technology startup Combate à Fraude, a subsidiary of the fintech. Today, the startup that provides onboarding and digital ID fraud management for large banks, e-commerce retailers and gig economy businesses, is an independent company.

Mutual’s goal is to offer R$535 million in loans by the end of 2022. For this year, Mutual wants to reach R$80 million.

Mutual was one of the first fintechs in the people-to-people lending segment in Brazil, and is now a multi-funding credit hub, connecting people and funds willing to invest in credit operations with other people and companies that need resources.

New directors

Mutual is currently using part of the funding to reinforce its leadership team. Three new directors have been hired: Paulo Barreiros, Thiago Basso and Carlos Peçanha have taken on the roles of chief financial officer, chief credit and risk officer and chief technology officer, respectively.

With over twenty years experience in the financial area, Barreiros worked for banks such as JPMorgan, where he was the institution’s CFO in Brazil; BTG Pactual, as senior business manager in Colombia; and Santander, where he worked for over eight years and held the positions of CFO and market risk director, among others. He also worked at Accenture, leading risk management services for the consultancy’s clients.

Before joining Mutual, Baço, with over ten years of professional experience in the credit market, worked as credit risk supervisor at BV Bank, and also worked for over ten years in the credit area at Volkswagen Financial Services, the company in charge of the Volkswagen Group’s financial operations in Brazil.

Peçanha has more than ten years experience in the technology area. He worked for approximately seven years at Stone Co. group, first at MundiPagg, a digital payment solutions company, and lastly at Nodis, a retail technology startup.

New hires

Mutual will also increase its staff, which currently consists of 65 people. By the end of this year, the fintech plans to have 100 employees and more than 20 vacancies are currently open for positions in the technology, product and administrative areas.

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