LatAm List – REBEL, an online lender that provides unsecured loans to middle-class Brazilians at accessible interest rates, recently raised $10M from Monashees and FinTech Collective, an NYC-based global venture capital firm.
REBEL seeks to tackle the bureaucratic and costly Brazilian lending market by providing individualized credit at affordable interest rates as low as 2.9% per month. By comparison, Brazilian banks often offer credit at rates between 45-400% yearly.
“For decades our banking system has made no sense, resulting in a distorted relationship between consumers and credit,” explained Rafael Pereira, CEO of REBEL. “Traditional banks claim that credit in Brazil is expensive because of delinquency rates, but in reality delinquency is high because the country has the highest interest rates in the world.”
Through REBEL’s proprietary credit score system, individuals are assessed precisely and provided with a loan of up to R$50,000 for up to 24 months with affordable interest rates. Through REBEL Score, clients also have access to their personal credit rating and can obtain advice on improving their financial health.
“We believe that Rebel has the opportunity to not only repair the broken US$100B unsecured consumer credit market in Brazil, but also expand the availability of credit in the country by changing the way Brazilians relate to their personal finances,” commented Sean Lippel, Principal at FinTech Collective.
The investment will allow REBEL to invest in new technology, improve distribution channels, create new products, and continue to increase their growing customer base.
Read more in this press release from Lend-It Fintech..