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Konfío: Lending to Mexico’s 4.4m SMEs
Lending to Mexico’s Credit-Starved SMEs
In Mexico SMEs are an integral part of the economy and are responsible for 88% of private sector employment. Despite this the economic contribution of SMEs is only 35% of Mexico’s GDP compared to 40–50% for other comparable economies. Their smaller share of GDP in Mexico is primarily the result of a lack of access to credit to finance growth. Poor access to credit is a universal problem across emerging markets and a major area of current innovation. Konfío was born to solve this very problem.
Headquartered in Mexico City, Konfío is a leading online lending platform offering affordable credit and payment tools to Mexico’s SMEs. The company was founded in 2013 by David Arana and Francisco Padilla and backed by investors like Quona Capital, IFC, VEF, Goldman Sachs, Softbank, and QED Investors.
Over the course of the past decade, the company has scaled impressively:
- Raised $706 million in funding to date
- Achieved a valuation of $1.3 billion
- Extended 45,000 loans to more than 27,600 SMEs
- Supported 70,000 businesses and SMEs throughout Mexico
- Boosted SME clients growth by 25% year over year
