Yotepresto, a collective financing platform that connects people who need a loan with investors. It has raised resources for 1.8 million dollars from the Variv Capital, Redwood Ventures and Tonk Capital funds. Its goal this year is to place 500 million pesos in new loans and, for this, it will use the resources to acquire more clients, prepare to comply with the Fintech Law and develop new products, says Luis Rubén Chávez, co-founder of the startup CEO .
The crowdfunding platform has 500,000 users and has accumulated 277 million pesos in loans since it began operations in June 2015. Its objective now is to accelerate its growth. “We are developing strategies and partnerships to acquire customers beyond digital channels. We are also working with partners who send us potential candidates, “says the former financial consultant. Who together with his partners Juan Pablo Mejía and Hugo Blum, entrepreneurs and finance specialists, founded the startup in Jalisco.
1% for each payment
The company, which has 35,000 investors to which it charges 1% for each payment it receives from the loans. This will allocate resources to become institutionalized, since it has until September 2019 to enter the application that authorizes it to operate under the rules of the Fintech Law. “We are going to invest in infrastructure, security and compliance equipment, to follow up on the requirements of the regulation,” adds Chávez.
He also plans to develop new products. “This year we will internally build a second product complementary to the offer we have for users and we will require resources for that,” says the entrepreneur from Guadalajara, who leads a team of 22 people, which will grow in areas of management, customer service, data science and engineering.
On the platform, users seeking to refinance their debt with the bank. Get better payment terms or fulfill a plan. Fill out a loan application in a process that takes less than 15 minutes. And generates a response in less than 24 hours. The application is published on the crowdfunding platform and the funds are deposited in the user’s account.
How the loans work
The loans range from 10,000 to 300,000 pesos at an interest rate up to 42% lower than the one paid to the bank, says Chávez. The company receives 25,000 requests, of which it only accepts 5%. Since the applicants must have a minimum credit history of two years, be a good payer and with a fixed source of verifiable income. “With 277 million pesos of accumulated loans, our default rate is 1.4%,” adds Chávez.
Investors, who can participate with amounts from 200 pesos, receive an average yield of 17%, says the entrepreneur. Whose company tripled the accumulated amount of loans in a year and almost paid interest to investors four times.
The company raised 18 million pesos
In addition to participating in the Village Capital accelerator program, the company raised 18 million pesos from angel investors between 2016 and 2017. This last round was led by the Variv Capital fund, which contacted through one of its investors. “He has a good relationship with them and that opened the doors for us. The process lasted six months and it was a very enriching experience because we had never been audited at that level, “says Chávez.
The fund hired an audit firm to validate the portfolio, users and other metrics of the company. The last week of December closed the round, which they announced on January 15. Redwood Ventures and Tonk Capital, both Guadalajara funds, were interested in investing in the startup. “When we told them that Variv would lead the round, they were delighted to participate,” says the entrepreneur.