Finkargo raises $20 million

Finkargo, which offers a trade platform for small and medium-sized businesses in Latin America, raised $20 million in Series A funding led by QED Investors, with the participation from Nazca, Quona, Flybridge, Maya, and ONEVC.

Founded in 2021, the Colombian-based startup offers a range of trade solutions – from verifying suppliers and shipments to providing cargo insurance and trade financing.

The new funds will strengthen the company’s growth in Mexico to expand the offering beyond trade financing into an integrated suite of trade services, including supplier sourcing, product verifications, cargo insurance, foreign exchange, and international trade data intelligence.

“International trade is so big and complex that tech disruption has only scratched the surface of what’s possible. At Finkargo, we started with the elephant in the room, trade financing. As we continue to tackle this behemoth, we’ve also identified missing pieces across our client’s operations that can only be filled through integrated systems. While digital freight forwarders are working hard to optimize the flow of goods, Finkargo is streamlining the flow of money and data.” – Finkargo CEO and co-founder Santiago Molina.

“While the global trade finance market sits at $5.2 trillion, there’s still a $1.7 trillion financing gap. SMBs in Colombia and Mexico import over $30 billion in volume from Asia yearly but struggle to access capital to manage the 60- to 120-day gap it takes from payments to shipment arrival. The limited number of banks that have trade finance practices almost exclusively focus on large traders, given the historically manual processes associated with underwriting these types of loans. Finkargo is bridging the gap by leveraging data and technology to offer an essential import financing product for SMBs. This capital will allow Finkargo to continue scaling and expanding to Mexico, a huge market that will keep growing on the tailwinds of nearshoring.” – QED Investors principal Camila Key Saruhashi.