Why We Invested: Monkey
By Meagan Prins and Rafa de la Guia
In Latin America, the vast majority of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) struggle to access credit. When credit is available, the interest rates are punishing.
Monkey, a first-of-its-kind multi-funder supply chain finance (SCF) marketplace, aims to change that. Monkey’s platform enables any supplier — small, medium, or large — who sells to large anchor buyers to access receivables financing based on the risk of their more-creditworthy buyers. Monkey, which integrates with the enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems of its anchor buyers, runs daily auctions on its platform in which multiple financial institutions bid for confirmed receivables, enabling it to extend low-cost financing options to underserved SMEs in Brazil.
Monkey’s value proposition is not only a game-changer for small businesses, but it is also highly compelling for large anchor buyers and for the banks on the platform. For large buyers, Monkey’s platform allows them to extend supply chain finance to the long tail of their suppliers, to improve the terms for all suppliers, and to extend payment terms overall. For banks, Monkey allows them to manage their SCF portfolio across multiple anchor buyers with the ability to dynamically set the terms and total exposure they wish to have on the platform. Monkey is rapidly becoming the SCF platform of choice for many of Brazil’s leading companies, including Petrobras, Gerdau, Saint-Gobain Group, Fiat Chrysler, and Minerva, among others, while the financial institutions on the platform include leading Brazilian and global banks.
Monkey was founded by Gustavo Müller, Bruno Oliveira, and Felipe Adorno. The visionary trio and their team are working on a robust product roadmap, which leverages the rich data and strength of their platform, and includes the recent launch of Spike, an innovative credit card receivables financing solution. Monkey plans to expand internationally in the near future.
We are thrilled to welcome Monkey to the Quona portfolio and to work with the team in driving financial inclusion forward for SMEs in Latin America.
Read more in TechCrunch.
Disclaimer: Quona portfolio companies were selected for profiles based on objective, non-performance-based criteria for the purpose of illustrating the types of investment made by Quona funds and their impacts. These profiles are being provided for illustrative purposes only, in order to provide examples of the idea generation, research, and thought process of Quona investment teams. No representation is made as to whether or if the investment ideas represented in these profiles have been or will be profitable. It should not be assumed that Quona will be able to identify similar investment opportunities in the future, or that any such opportunities will be profitable. The above statements include the opinions of the Firm and are for illustrative purposes only. There is no assurance that any trends depicted or objectives described in Quona profiles will continue or become successful.
