NG.CASH, a Brazilian fintech, announced it raised a $10M seed round led by Andreesen Horowitz (a16z) and Monashees. Other participants in the round were 17Sigma and founders from Ualá, Rappi, Mobile, Brex, and more.
The fintech offers a digital wallet app to make instant payments, top-up cell phones, make transfers, and shop with discounts. Its prepaid card works for online purchases like a credit card.
The startup’s revenue sources are today card interchange fees, tickets and commissions on products. It already has 900,000 users and its target audience are Brazilians aged 10 to 24.
The startup’s CEO Mario Augusto Sá launched 10 years ago a YouTube channel called Neagle that is popular among young people in Brazil. This is why NG.CASH’s customer acquisition cost is low, as Sá already has access to a large base of young people.
This audience, according to Sá, demands NFT products and NG.CASH intends to bring this to the market in the long term, as well as stablecoins. This is because many young customers are gamers, which means they can use the NG.CASH account for payouts when they earn money through video games.
In 2021, the startup received a $400K pre-seed round from Stone:
“The market has changed a lot, but the fact that we only raised $400,000 last year and are at the same stage as those who raised millions has helped a lot, because we knew how to build the base,” explained Sá.
With the new funding, NG.CASH aims to grow its team to 80 employees.
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