Bold, a Colombian financial technology company building an electronic payments infrastructure, received $50 million in Series C investment from General Atlantic.
The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation joined InQLab and Amador as investors. Bold co-founder and CEO José Vélez told Eltrys Bold raised $130 million.
Bold offers dataphones and low-cost payment terminals for small and medium companies to take link payments and other local payments.
“COVID accelerated the country’s transition toward electronic payments, or digital payments, and we are beneficiaries,” Vélez added.
The payments firm has 100,000 merchants utilizing their services monthly. Another 50,000 monthly active retailers joined a year later. Bold now employs over 800 workers, up from 380 in 2022.
Since 2022, sales have climbed sixfold, and Vélez claimed the firm is developing quickly. Bold has around 3% of Colombia’s volume market.
“In Brazil, other companies reached 10% market share, so we believe there is a big opportunity going forward when we can triple, or more, our volume in the next three to five years,” Vélez added. “We have worked hard to gain market share, relevance, and scale.”
He compared the company’s value to Bold’s Series B valuation but didn’t share it.
While cash still rules Latin America, electronic payments are growing as younger generations embrace credit cards and internet shopping. Bold, Pomelo, Liquido, and Mattilda are collaborating to acquire market share.
Luiz Ribeiro, managing director and co-head of General Atlantic’s Brazil business, said Bold distinguishes itself by providing services beyond payments.
“The first layer is all the financial products and services you can add, like insurance,” Ribeiro said in an interview. “Then you can add software to help merchants accept payments and manage their finances. If they can supply banking and software in five years, they will succeed.”
Bold will improve its product roadmap and offers with this cash. As it transitions from a payments link provider to a merchant-focused solution, Vélez seeks to expand its company.
Over the following year, the business will cross-sell its merchants a bank account after receiving its financial institution license.
