Removing Financial Barriers for the Next Generation of Global Entrepreneurs
Tribal Credit Notches $34.3 Million Series A for Expansion into Mexico
By Brent MacDonald – Principal @ Rising Tide
The startup economy is booming in emerging markets but the banking infrastructure that should support it is broken. A huge gap exists between the financial services offered and what startups really need. Approximately 200 million Small Midsized Businesses (SMBs) in emerging economies lack access to formal savings and credit which often restrict or slow startup growth (McKinsey & Company). Strict banking regulations also often limit or make difficult the opening of business bank accounts, obtaining credit cards, and making cross-border payments.
Tribal Credit joined Visa’s ‘Fintech Fast Track’ Program adding it to an elite group of fintechs and accelerating its integration with Visa’s global payment network. Globally, there are approximately 1 billion potential new card credentials and more than 65 million merchants coming from fintechs, neobanks, and wallets, according to Visa. Its Fintech Fast Track program is key to unlocking this opportunity.
Tribal Credit bridges this gap and offers long-needed financial tools to startup founders. Tribal Credit is a B2B payment fintech specially designed for startups in emerging markets. The Company uses a proprietary AI-driven underwriting approval process to evaluate businesses and approve them for credit lines. Those businesses can then use those credit lines to spend on Tribal products, Tribal Card and Tribal Pay. Tribal Card is a business Visa card that allows users to create physical and virtual multi-currency cards. Tribal Pay allows users to make payments to merchants and suppliers that do not accept credit cards. The Company says its value proposition lies not only in its ability to provide SMBs with virtual and physical corporate cards, but also as a global digital platform that allows founders and CFOs to give access to and manage the spend of their distributed teams.
After launching its waitlist in December 2019 Tribal Credit has seen demand from startups in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Mexico who struggle to access traditional financial services. The company recently closed a $34.3 million Series A funding round. This round allows Tribal Credit to accelerate its growth in Mexico and help the new generation of SMBs fueling the Mexican economy and break free from local financial barriers. Latin America is a $15 billion opportunity, which is led by Mexico, Tribal Credit’s biggest market. Tribal states there are 62 million Latin American SMBs that conduct business internationally. The latest financing round follows 10x year-over-year growth, according to CEO and co-founder @Amr Shady. As part of the investment, Tribal received $3 million from the Stellar Development Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports the development and growth of the open-source Stellar blockchain network.
Why We Are Excited:
Founded by serial entrepreneurs, data scientists and fintech execs, Tribal Credit is on a mission to power SMB’s growth in emerging markets and to bridge the business financial inclusion gap in payments and financing. We strongly support this mission. The must for a corporate card has hastened especially with an increasing demand for making B2B online payments. Companies in this new economy are digital and global first and the need for a corporate credit card has accelerated. Tribal Credit has answered the call.
Juniper Research awarded Tribal Credit with its ‘Best B2B Payment Platform Gold Award’ recognizing its efforts in helping startups and SMEs in emerging markets gain access to modern payment tools that power their growth and scale efforts.