With over $4 million raised, Barte has established itself as a premium B2B payment platform in Brazil.

Six months after the pre-launch announcement, B2B payment platform Barte raised a $3 million seed round. The Brazilian fintech company will use the money raised to establish itself as a premium B2B payment platform in Brazil, aiming to recreate the 10x growth achieved in 2022. The round was led by NXTP and Force Over Mass with participation from existing investor VentureFriends.‍

One of the biggest headaches for Latin American SMEs is working capital management, which is affected by an outdated payment infrastructure and near-total access to capital. Entrepreneurs often struggle with low transaction approval rates, manual processes, and poor transparency that result in cash flow restrictions even for viable businesses.‍

Founded in 2021, Barte addresses this challenge with a B2B payment platform, streamlining processes and providing access to working capital financing. Initially, they focused on some of the most affected segments of this market, such as service providers and B2B merchants, creating a higher level of automation while maintaining the flexibility needed for B2B shopping flows. After a pre-seed announced six months ago, the company raised a seed round led by NXTP and Force Over Mass, surpassing the $4 million mark in capital raised.‍

This new round was led by NXTP, a Latin American B2B fund with six unicorns in its portfolio, and Force Over Mass, a London-based fintech company that was their first investment in Brazil, followed by current investor VentureFriends.

“In 2022, we increased volumes by more than 10 times. We have established ourselves as a benchmark for B2B SMBs looking to streamline payments until they no longer need to think about it, and it’s great to rid a growing number of customers of what is still a major problem in Latin America. This round is a vote of confidence from new and previous investors in our execution that will help us take the next step as a company and scale up our business and product.” says Cayetano Lacerda, co-founder and CEO.

Alexandre Busse, NXTP partner, commented “Barte is leveraging huge market opportunities to digitize SMB financial workflows and fill the trillion dollar funding gap that currently exists for small businesses in Latin America and Brazil. Cayetano and Rafael are uniquely positioned to meet this challenge, and their customer-centric approach to business development has led to phenomenal success. We are convinced that this is only the beginning.”

‍Apostolos from VentureFriends added: “We were very lucky to support Cayetano and Rafael when Barte was just an idea, and we were impressed with their implementation and rapid transition to a revenue-generating company with an indispensable product for SMEs. We’re very excited about what’s to come.”

Origin and next steps

While thousands of companies are already using Barte’s solution, the startup is just over a year old. Barte was founded by Cayetano Lacerda and Rafael Dicclay, the former providing financial services and deep technology expertise while working in London at Deutsche Bank and Tractable, and the latter leading the product management fronts of successful cases in Latin America such as Creditas, Loft and Olist. .

‍The company is expanding rapidly and plans to grow tenfold in 2023. The secret, according to Dykesclay, is to focus on certain segments that have more complex payment processes. Niches such as B2B retail, vendors, and marketplaces are good examples where the company has successfully expanded into.

“Our goal is to simplify everything related to sending and receiving payments. Our clients get the opportunity to leave their processes on autopilot without giving up the specifics of what they have developed in-house. We provide this option without the need for technology integration, which is a limitation for many SMBs.” says Raphael Dixclay.

‍Vision

In the long term, Dykesclay notes that they are committed to changing the way companies operate in Latin America, ensuring that this engagement takes the region to new levels of efficiency.

‍“Latin America is experiencing a large window of opportunity in payments. Regulatory innovation and open finance are just the tip of the iceberg. However, B2B companies with more complex processes than the standard self-service process risk being left behind. At Barte, we make sure this doesn’t happen,” says the founder.

The founders also acknowledge that payments are only part of the problem, the other being access to capital. “While the problem starts with managing and making payments, access to capital is the other side of the equation. Through our platform, we can create more robust lending models, opening up access to financing for the underserved segment,” says Lacerda. With that in mind, the company mentioned structuring a specific debt instrument, but mentioned that it was too early to comment on the details.