Barcelona’s ID Finance raises $50 million in debt funding to expand fintech to developing countries

By VentureBeat

ID Finance, a fintech startup the relocated from Russia to Barcelona, has raised $50 million in debt from a consortium of banks as it seeks to expand across Latin America.

The funding was led by Russian bank TransKapitalBank following the company’s launch in Brazil last year. Founded by CEO Boris Batine and COO Alexander Dunaev in 2012, the company uses big data to measure credit risk when making loans.

In addition to operating in Russia and Brazil, the company operates in Poland and Spain and says it is making 50,000 loans per month. It has 380 employees spread across those territories.

“The opportunity for fintech in emerging markets is so large it’s difficult to measure — we’re talking about a massive structural consumer demand for credit that is not being met by incumbents,” Batine said in a statement. “These are often huge markets with highly uncompetitive financial services and limited availability of credit. Thanks to the growth of the internet and mobile, we can make it much easier for people to apply for loans and by using alternative sources of data we can extend credit to a much larger portion of the population.

First appeared at VentureBeat