In 2011, Nicolas Shea, future founder of Cumplo, met Chris Larsen during the latter’s presentation about Prosper Marketplace, his successful crowdlending startup. Shea was so inspired by the idea that he quickly launched the Latin American counterpart, which would become Cumplo. After realizing the original business model would not work in Latin America, Shea pivoted the company successfully and was processing US$125M in personal loans per year by 2017.
Larsen moved on from Prosper quickly after meeting Shea and became one of the co-founders of Ripple, a popular cryptocurrency. As the owner of 17% of Ripple currency, Larsen is now estimated to be worth US$7.5B. Shea arranged to meet with Larsen on a recent visit to the US to show him the development of Cumplo, and Larsen quickly agreed to join as mentor – and then to invest.
Just as Cumplo was closing its first round, led by a Mexican VC fund and a few US angel investors, Larsen jumped on board. This investment will help take Cumplo to Mexico as the company ended 2017 on a high; after six years in operation, Cumplo is finally profitable. Mexico is one of the most progressive countries in the region when it comes to fintech, having passed the first fintech regulations earlier this year, so Cumplo has high hopes for the expansion.
Cumplo has big goals, and expansion to Mexico (followed by the US) will help them achieve growth. Shea plans to double the amount of money loaned through Cumplo every year until it reaches US$1B in 2020.
Read the original article in El Mercurio to learn more about the partnership between Cumplo and Ripple.
