Lending startup Kala is helping Latin American banks more easily offer credit

Small businesses in Latin America got another boost in lending support with the investment of $4 million in Kala, a Colombia-based company building fintech infrastructure for lending. Kala officially launched in July 2022 and within the first six months had three customers, two in Colombia and one in Mexico, using the product and dispersing it to over 50,000 customers. Kala charges a SaaS fee and is already bringing in revenue.

In 2019, SoftBank allocated $5 billion to investing in Latin American startups, then the Japanese investment conglomerate committed another $3 billion to startups there, which was further validation that Latin America was home to a formidable startup system. About $7.6 billion of that capital has been allocated overall across more than 80 investments.

CDPI Emerging Markets

Nigerian startup Alajo is an escrowed digital piggy bank for the under- and un-banked, which allows people to access financial services without the need for internet access. Founded in 2021, Alajo helps people to save money using USSD, IVR and SMS through PoS and money agents in their communities, delivered via a savings infrastructure on a Mobile App.

CDPI Emerging Markets

GrowthLoop will use TransUnion identity data to improve U.S. consumer match rates on client files sent to advertising media such as Facebook and Google Ads. The data should also help clients to find matches among records within their files, building more accurate customer profiles. GrowthLoop calls itself a “composable CDP”, meaning it works with data assembled in external data warehouses.

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Lending startup Kala is helping Latin American banks more easily offer credit

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