Brazilian fintech Cora raises $10m, founded by Wirecard company creators

Written by Ruby Hinchliffe
11th December 2019

Cora, a Brazilian payments service for businesses which promises zero rates and unlimited payments, has raised its first $10 million.

Founders Igor Senra and Leo Mendes are already familiar with the payments start-up space, having previously created online payments platform MOIP, which was bought by German payments giant Wirecard in 2016.

Founders Igor Senra (left) and Leo Mendes (right)

However, Mendes says that the WireCard acquisition meant they often worked with large clients which didn’t really need their services.

“We created Cora to pursue our life purpose, which is to solve the financial problems faced by small and medium businesses,” says Senra in a company statement. “These businesses produce 67% of the Brazilian GDP but are totally underserved by the traditional banks.”

Led by Kaszek Ventures, arguably one of the main funding firms responsible for the recent boom in Latin American (LatAm) start-up growth, Cora’s seed funding round also saw participation from Ribbit Capital – the investment firm which has backed Rasin, Credit Karma, Revolut and Robinhood.

Currently operating in closed beta with plans to launch its small to medium enterprise (SME)-only mobile account in the first half of 2020, Cora says it will later release other products for payments, credit and financial management which are still in the works now.

“So far, large financial institutions have mainly built products that focus either on individuals or on large corporate clients and have totally ignored SMEs, who are the most relevant creators of value in our economies,” says Mendes.

“We want to offer a high-quality, customer-centric suite of financial products that address the specific underserved needs of our clients’ businesses.”