LatAm List – Provi, a Brazilian fintech that provides funding for short courses recently raised $1.3M from Global Founders Capital and some angel investors. This investment will allow the startup to expand its team and its lending capacity.
Provi has provided $480K (R$2M) in credit for courses ranging from web development and programming to eye micropigmentation.
“We look at credit in the traditional way, by paying attention to spending, however that becomes less important the younger the borrower is. We have to remember that the person paying is not yesterday’s person, but tomorrow’s,” said Fernando Franco, Provi’s CEO. He added, “Education can improve their ability to pay, but big banks continue to treat people who take credit for studying or traveling the same way.”
Their decision to go into education came from Brazil’s need for funding for short courses, since most educational credit is focused on long-term courses like undergraduate degrees.
“Higher level education is not possible for many, due to time and money. For some professions like programming, practical courses are encouraged more. Even so, we did not find a specific funding line for them,” said Franco.
Provi aims to expand its team to 18 members, as well as reach $2.18M (R$9M) in credits by the end of the year with this injection of capital.
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