Miami-based financial technology firm Marco receives $82 million in new seed funding
Marco, the Miami-based tech-enabled firm that helps small and medium-sized exporters in the U.S. and Latin America with digital financing and paperless processing, has raised an additional $82 million in seed funding and expanded its total credit line to $100 million.
The new funds are led by Kayyak Ventures, a firm whose portfolio includes startups such as: the food tech company Foodology; Migrante, a financing firm that works with immigrants in Chile; and AgroUrbana, the first vertical farming company in Latin America.
“Small exporters, especially in LatAm, are burdened with a broken financing system that makes it nearly impossible to compete with larger exporters,” said Peter D. Spradling, COO and co-founder of Marco, in a press release. “Banks aren’t built to serve the needs of smaller companies; they often make SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] wait around 90 days before rejecting over 50% of trade finance applications. We built Marco specifically to support this disadvantaged market. The seed round will help build a more stable and equitable trade ecosystem.”
Other investors in the latest round of seed-fundraising include Village Global VC, Flexport Ventures and Tresalia Capital.
Marco, which has offices in New York, Dallas and throughout Latin America, was founded in 2019 by Peter D. Spradling and Jacob Shoihet. The company provides working capital in the form of loans to SMEs that are turned down by banks because of their small size. The lack of financing prevents the companies from expanding into new markets.
In Sept. 2020, the company secured $26 million in seed investments from the L.A.-based Star Struck firm and the global investment firm Antler.
This story was originally published July 13, 2021 at 1:04 PM.
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