Bold, a financial technology company building electronic payments infrastructure in Colombia, has raised $50 million in Series C funding in a round led by existing investor General Atlantic.
The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, joined existing investors InQLab and Amador in this round. Bold co-founder and CEO Jose Velez told TechCrunch that Bold has raised a total of $130 million.
Bold offers low-cost payment terminals called dataphones that allow small businesses to accept link payments and other local payment methods.
“COVID-19 has accelerated the transition to electronic payments, or digital payments, in this country, and we are benefiting from that transition,” Velez said.
TechCrunch introduced the company when it raised a $55 million Series B round in 2022. At the time, the payment service provider had about 100,000 merchants using its services every month. Now, one year later, we have an additional 50,000 monthly active sellers. Bold has also expanded its number of employees from 380 to more than 800 in 2022.
Meanwhile, Velez said the company is growing rapidly, with revenue increasing six times since 2022. Bold holds a market share of approximately 3% in terms of current sales volume in Colombia.
“Other companies in Brazil, for example, have reached 10% market share, so if we can more than triple our sales volume in the next three to five years, we see a huge opportunity,” Vélez says. said. “We have made significant efforts to gain market share, become a relevant player and increase scale.”
He declined to disclose the company's valuation, but said it was similar to Bold's Series B valuation.
Although cash remains the dominant currency in Latin America, electronic payments are gaining momentum as younger generations embrace credit cards and online purchases. Bold is collaborating with other startups such as Pomelo, Liquido, and Mattilda to gain market share.
Our bold founders, from left: Sergio Vergara, Jose Velez, Ana Sandoval, Jorge Ulloa: Image credits: bold
Luis Ribeiro, managing director and co-head of General Atlantic's Brazil office, said Bold differentiates itself by adding a layer of service in addition to payments. .
“The first layer is all the financial products and services that you can add, like insurance,” Ribeiro said in an interview. “Then we can add software solutions in parallel to enable merchants to not only accept payments but also manage their own finances. If we can deliver banking and software in the next five years , that means success.”
With this new funding, Bold plans to strengthen its product roadmap and offerings. Vélez also wants to focus on expanding his business by pivoting from a payment link provider to a more comprehensive service for merchants.
The company also recently obtained a financial institution license to provide bank accounts to merchants, and will be cross-selling those accounts to merchants over the next 12 months.