Consumer finance technology company, Kreditech, has raised EUR 82.5 million in Series C financing to fuel the company’s growth. The round was led by J.C. Flowers & Co. LLC, a leading private investment firm dedicated to investing in the financial services industry globally. Peter Thiel and Amadeus Capital Partners (Amadeus) invested earlier this year in a bridge loan that has now fully converted into Series C equity. Existing shareholders Värde Partners, HPE Growth Capital and Blumberg Capital also participated in the round. The company is in advanced discussions for a final closing that could increase the Series C round to over EUR 100 million.
“We are excited to bring these world-class investors on board who will support us in strengthening our integrated financial services platform, bringing us closer to our vision of becoming the ‘digital bank for the underbanked’,” said Kreditech’s Co-Founder and CEO Sebastian Diemer. “We are a technology company, but also a provider of consumer financial services, and we are fortunate to have a sophisticated shareholder group whose experience and network spans both areas.”
“We view the addition of J.C. Flowers, Peter Thiel and Amadeus as a major validation of our business model. They are important partners in building our capital markets story,” added Kreditech’s CFO Rene Griemens. “The company has now raised cumulative equity and debt funds of more than EUR 300 million, of which EUR 160 million are unused debt facilities available to finance further growth.”
Loren Felsman of J.C. Flowers, who will join the company’s board, said, “There are people without access to fair and affordable credit in every market we have analyzed, and technology is enabling new and better ways of offering credit to these customers. Kreditech has developed a remarkably sophisticated approach to real-time consumer banking, and focuses on markets that are relatively less well-served by traditional credit bureaus and financial services providers. Most lenders, including those built on modern technology, may not crack these markets for years.”
“We are very impressed by Kreditech’s speed of execution; its business model, in combination with its innovative scoring and underwriting technologies, has enormous potential to overtake traditional banking models in the future,” said Andrea Traversone, Partner of Amadeus.
Take a look at our interview with CTO Alexander Graubner-Müller to find out more about what Kreditech is doing.
