São Paulo-based fintech startup, FinanZero, raises a new investment round worth $7 million for its digital lending-focused platform.  

The startup provides a platform where users can apply for various loans without a credit score, from a list of financial services companies. FinanZero’s platform processes the applications and provides quick answers online. 

Investors in the round include VEF, Dunross & Co and Atlant Fonder, among others. FinanZero was founded by Joakim Pops, Kristian Jacobsson and Olle Widén in 2015. The new funding round will be put toward hiring plans, product development, and advertising, TechCrunch reported. 

The startup has partnerships with approximately 51 financial institutions that finance the loans, from which FinanZero receives a commission. The company receives around 750,000 applications for loans, on a monthly basis.

Since its founding in 2015, the startup has grown to around 52 team members, so far. FinanZero lists loans in a variety of categories include homes, personal lending, and automotive, among others. 

“Our business model is very based on the bank’s risk appetite and we saw 60% growth from 2019-2020,” Widén said to TechCrunch. “We are close to 3 million visits per month, about 1.5 are unique and in March of 2021, we had 800,000 people fill out the entire loan form. We have about a 10% approval rating across all products.” 

(Picture courtesy: LabNews)