CashU, a pioneer in Brazil in the B2B credit modality based on artificial intelligence, launches its own Credit Rights Investment Fund (FIDC), with a value of R$ 100 million, to finance its operations.
The fund has participation from Itaú BBA - the largest investment bank in Latin America - and the Japanese financial conglomerate Credit Saison.
With the launch of the fund, CashU will now finance a large part of its sales increase recommendations through the opening of a base and extension of credit to SMEs. Today, 100% of the technology is proprietary and distributed through industry sales channels and large distributors interested in real-time technology for the commercial and financial areas.
For Yuri Fonseca, Co-founder, Chief AI Officer at CashU and postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, this is yet another demonstration of the market’s confidence in the evolution of data processing and AI, both in the fintech segment and in CashU, representing another decisive step for the company towards the Series A investment round.
“CashU was the first fintech to incorporate artificial intelligence into credit to finance working capital for SMEs with the supply chain. We have proven that the accuracy of our proprietary credit granting models is 10 times higher than that of incumbents. In practice, this means that CashU can double the sales of a large industry through credit granting, with the highest approval rates in the market, while also producing sustainable credit portfolios, which has attracted the attention of some of the most sophisticated credit investors in the country”, comments Yuri Fonseca.
Arthur Bariani, member of the Investment team at Credit Saison Brazil, comments on the operation:
“Since the beginning of our operations in Brazil, we have been intensely dedicated to supporting fintechs that offer innovative and creative solutions in the country’s credit market. CashU is an excellent example of a company that uses data and artificial intelligence to facilitate and streamline inventory financing for SMEs, allowing these companies to focus on their core competencies and increase their sales. As part of Credit Saison’s global commitment to promoting financial inclusion for SMEs, we are very pleased to partner with CashU as they continue to expand a solid portfolio of clients”, he says.
CashU uses artificial intelligence to offer B2B credit to SMEs and retailers across the country, through industries and suppliers, who contract credit and offer it to their customers, directly at the checkout of each purchase. The company has developed a proprietary predictive model, being the only one on the market that analyzes each customer, offering score, term and credit limit in real time, in a highly dynamic system that is fully integrated with the payment solutions already used by the industry.
CashU’s artificial intelligence uses neural networks that analyze a series of behaviors unexplored by the market, managing to hyper-personalize each credit offer, in real time, for all its transactions.
“Since the launch of the B2B credit product, CashU has experienced double-digit growth month after month. We have attracted 2 of the 3 largest B2B marketplaces in the country as customers. The proprietary FIDC strengthens our operations and demonstrates the interest of private credit investors in credit portfolios generated with artificial intelligence”, says Thiago Saldanha, CEO and Founder of CashU.
“Our intention is to make approximately R$1 billion in credit available to small and medium-sized companies in the country by 2025. This is smart, customized credit that would not be available through traditional channels and that can certainly help SMEs grow sustainably, while also bringing greater peace of mind and growth to the industry. We at CashU continue to believe in Brazil and in the ability of Brazilian entrepreneurs to overcome difficulties and prosper, generating value for the economy and society as a whole,” he says.
Thiago Saldanha met Yuri Fonseca at Columbia University in New York, USA. The startup recently strengthened its team of partners with the addition of two important talents: Luciano Schifino, a recent reference in the fintech market and with a remarkable career at Ambev, now leads the company’s sales and marketing teams. Gregory Brown, formerly of PicPay, known for his solid performance as a tech lead and for his leadership in technology and innovation, arrives to further strengthen the technological base of the company’s business model.