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SoftBank Is Said in Talks to Invest in Brazilian Lender Creditas

SoftBank Is Said in Talks to Invest in Brazilian Lender Creditas

(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks to invest about $230 million in Brazilian online lender Creditas as the firm expands investments in Latin America, according to people familiar with the matter.

SoftBank is planning to do the deal via a joint investment from its Vision Fund and newly created Innovation Fund, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the details aren’t public. No final decisions have been made, and SoftBank may still decide against the transaction, they said.

SoftBank and Creditas declined to comment.

SoftBank’s Innovation Fund was launched this month to invest a $5 billion pot across Latin America. The fund is also close to putting as much as $1 billion in Colombian food delivery startup Rappi, people familiar with the matter have said.

Creditas, which raised 250 million reais ($63.4 million) through two fundraising rounds in 2017, claims to offer secured loans at interest rates as little as 25 percent of what Brazilian banks charge. It also says it has default rate of less than 1 percent, according to startup advisory firm Endeavor. Creditas has lent more than 500 million reais since it was created in 2012, according to its website.

Creditas’s investors include Banco Santander SA’s InnoVentures, Amadeus Capital Partners, Quona Capital and Vostok Emerging Finance.

To contact the reporters on this story: Giles Turner in London at gturner35@bloomberg.net;Rodrigo Orihuela in Madrid at rorihuela@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, ;Charles Penty at cpenty@bloomberg.net, Amy Thomson, Dinesh Nair

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