Ume Secures $21 Mn in Series B to Amplify Brazil's Credit Sector - InforCapital

Ume, a pioneer in fintech, transforming the credit landscape in Brazil, has successfully raised $21 million in Series B equity funding. The fundraising round was spearheaded by Valor Capital Group and Bewater, and saw contributions from PayPal Ventures, NFX, Globo Ventures, Canary, and BigBets. The influx of funding will be channelled towards expanding Ume's Payment Network, enhancing the firm's technological prowess, AI infrastructure, and commercial capabilities.

Ume's PIX enabled Payment Network is a comprehensive platform designed to empower merchants to develop and scale their credit businesses. This innovative platform gives businesses access to new profit avenues, facilitates multi-credit offerings, and integrates loyalty and marketing solutions. Built on top of Brazil's PIX infrastructure, the platform simplifies the complex financial systems and turns credit into a growth lever for businesses.

In the year since its Series A funding round, Ume has significantly expanded its gross merchandise value (GMV) by almost three times, doubled its client base, and originated over R$ 500 million annualized GMV across more than one million transactions. Additionally, the company has launched new tools that integrate loyalty, marketing, and credit.

Commenting on this pivotal development, Berthier Ribeiro, Ume’s co-founder and CEO, said, "Just as Visa assisted banks in building their own card operations, Ume is aiding merchants in establishing their own credit operations, offering them the autonomy and expertise to internalize profit pools long held by banks. As we amplify our Payment Network, we envision the potential to expand this model beyond retail and even globally."

Valor Capital Group's Managing Partner, Paulo Passoni, believes that Ume’s model will revolutionize how companies manage credit, generating long-term value for businesses and consumers. He added, "Brazilian retail is ripe for a structural transformation, and Ume is spearheading this change by constructing a robust infrastructure based on Machine Learning."

Central to Ume’s transformation is its proprietary technology platform, which is a comprehensive infrastructure designed to support end-to-end credit operations. The system merges AI-powered credit decisioning, LLM-enhanced collections and customer support, and integration with PIX, permitting merchants to manage underwriting, risk, customer engagement, and collections at scale. Ume's AI capabilities are custom-built for business-led credit, learning from real-time transaction data, behavioural patterns, and sales interactions to optimize limit assignment, reduce risk exposure, and personalize offers.

In August 2024, Ume successfully raised $15 million in a Series A round led by PayPal Ventures. During the same period, the company also secured a new $20 million FIDC debt facility, backed by investors such as Verde Asset, Western Asset, Itaú, Credit Saison, and Milenio.