Bloomberg Línea — Brazilian neobank Nubank has secured a loan of up to $150 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector financing arm and, according to the fintech, the amount will be used to expand its operations in Colombia.
This is the second time the Brazilian fintech has taken on credit for its business in Spanish-speaking Latin America. Last year, Nubank received a $650 million, three-year credit line to expand its operations in Mexico and Colombia. On that occasion, the loan was provided by Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and HSBC.
The new loan from the IFC will be in local currency and has a term of three years.
The facility “will be used to drive growth of the local operation and expand access to financial services in the country,” Nubank said in a press release.
Nubank says it has issued 400,000 cards in Colombia in the past 10 months. In its Q3 2022 results, the bank claimed to have 70 million customers globally.
Credit for technology companies
At a time when venture capital for technology companies has become scarcer, Latin American companies have sought lines of credit with large banks.
Companies in Spanish-speaking Latin America have struck the most publicized deals of this type. Colombian unicorn Habi, for example, recently took on $6.3 million in debt from Bancóldex, while the biggest debt was taken on by Kavak, the region’s most valuable unicorn, which received up to $810 million in funding.
In Brazil, a venture capitalist familiar with the deals told Bloomberg Línea on condition of anonymity because the discussions are private, that technology companies have been quietly receiving lines of credit and negotiating debt and distressed deals, or so-called impaired assets, issued by companies that are in financial distress.
