Chilean Datamart raised $6.3 million last week to grow further in Latin America.
The company is looking to expand into Mexico this year, the region’s second-largest market, where it eyes substantial opportunities to market its data compliance services.
Moonvalley Capital led the seed round. It also saw participation from local institutions such as Banco Santander, Grupo Falabella, and BICE.
“We now begin a new stage at Datamart,” CEO and Founder Mauricio Thibaut said. “We are ready to take on the new challenge of transforming the financial industry into a more agile, inclusive, and fair industry, where decisions are always based on information.”
Opportunities in Mexico
The startup streamlines credit assessment for financial institutions, shortening a typical loan application process by facilitating critical data.
Thibaut eyes significant opportunities in Mexico. Credit penetration is shallow, and most traditional institutions struggle with a lack of available data. Many Mexicans are informally employed, preventing banks from adequately assessing credit risk outside the formal sector. Hence, the CEO argues that its data management capabilities will see strong demand in the North American country.
Datamart’s products include APIs facilitating data sharing among end-users and financial institutions. The company claims it can accelerate credit applications that hinge on up-to-date data.
How it works
An SME initiates a credit application at a bank. It authorizes sharing of its private tax data. So, Datamart collects and processes the data necessary for the bank to assess risk.
This is especially relevant in cases where information is not publicly available and when a lender might struggle to gather enough data points to gauge creditworthiness.
The new round comes in the context of lower capital available for Latin American fintechs. The preparation of the first capital round was difficult, Thibaut told a local newspaper. “Last year’s market conditions were extremely difficult, but we managed to convince investors.”
Datamart expanded throughout Latin America in 2021, launching operations in Peru and Colombia. The capital raise would also be applied to these business units. However, Mexico remains the top priority for Datamart’s new expansion phase.
