Trade finance platform Marco says it has raised $200 million in a line of credit from MidCap Financial and Castlelake. At the same time, Marco says it has raised $8.2 million in equity from Arcadia Funds. Marco states that the capital will help it to expand its client base, which is mainly SMEs in need of trade financing in Latin America and the US>
In a release, Marco said that banks have largely exited the SME trade lending market, and thus there is a funding gap for these firms – in the amount of around $2 trillion globally and $350 million regionally in Latin America. Marco combines both take and real people to provide access to capital “quickly, “enabling SMEs to receive a decision within days instead of weeks.
Marco co-founder and COO Peter D. Spradling says that Marco is addressing one of the most pressing economic needs supporting small exporters in emerging markets to access capital quickly.
Last year Marco reports that it lent $100 million and has financed over $254 million with zero losses since inception. Marco says it intends to fund $750 million by the end of 2023.
Marco’s executive team includes industry veterans Barry Kastner and Fred Leder, who jointly have almost a century of experience in asset-backed lending.
The company recently hired its chief technology officer, Nik Bougalis, who previously served as director of engineering at fintech company Ripple Labs. At Marco, Bougalis is expected to leverage this experience to democratize and streamline access to financing for SMEs today while developing the infrastructure for the cross-border trade ecosystem of the future. Marco did not mention distributed ledger technology.
“We’re extremely proud to have provided small businesses with more than $250M of liquidity in two short years, but the best is yet to come,” said Marco co-founder and CEO Jacob Shoihet. “Our team is working on some revolutionary products that address exporters’ critical needs, crafted by our new CTO, Nik Bougalis. Our new financing comes during a tremendous period of growth at Marco and demand for our services and will help us meet the pressing liquidity demands of small exporters who are increasingly vital to a healthy, thriving, and resilient global and borderless economy.”
