Marco Financial, a financing platform for small exporters in the U.S. and Latin America, announced it closed a massive $82 million seed financing round and increased its credit line to $100 million.
The Miami-based company aims to facilitate cross-border trade by providing working capital to small- and medium-sized exporters. Those businesses often struggle to obtain financing from traditional banks, according to Marco Financial, which reports banks reject more than 50% of trade finance applications.
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"Small exporters, especially in LatAm, are burdened with a broken financing system that makes it nearly impossible to compete with larger exporters," said Marco Financial co-founder and COO Peter D. Spradling. "The seed round will help build a more stable and equitable trade ecosystem."
Marco Financial's executive team includes a group of fintech and trade policy veterans, such as Chief Product Officer Prajwal Manalwar, a former product lead at California-based PayPal. Sarah Teichman, the company's chief growth officer, was previously a managing director and senior adviser at the U.S. International Development Finance Corp.
The seed round was led by Chilean investment firm Kayyak Ventures. Other participants include several angel investors and venture capital firms, including Tampa-based Florida Funders.
Marco Financial plans to bridge Latin America's $350 billion trade financing gap with its tech-enabled risk platform. The model processes data in real-time to assess risk and capital loss, and determine if a businesses should receive a loan.
The new funding will be used to support product development and supply chain financing, according to a news release. The startup aims to develop a financing model that will give large logistics and shipping conglomerates the ability to finance exports on their own.
Marco Financial, founded in 2019, completed a previous $26 million seed funding round last September.
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