Neon Pagamentos, a Brazilian fintech, announced on Wednesday it secured $300 million through its Series C funding round, which was led by General Atlantic, a global growth equity firm, with participation from BlackRock, as well as Vulcan Capital, PayPal Ventures, and Endeavor Catalyst, in addition to former investors Monashees and Flourish Ventures. BBVA also participated via existing shareholder Propel Venture Partners. The investment will reportedly be split between two tranches of $150 million each.
Founded in 2016, Neon explained it launched with a digital account and has since expanded its product suite to include investment products, credit cards, and personal loans, among other new offerings and features. The company noted it expanded its initial focus on consumer clients to also serve small businesses, which was accelerated by its acquisition of MEI Fácil last year. Neon recently acquired the Brazilian brokerage platform, Magliano Invest, in July 2020.
Neon further revealed that the Series C funds will be used to support hiring efforts, grow the fintech’s user base across consumer and business clients, enhance the platform’s technology capabilities, and invest in product development, specifically, the financing will fuel key growth areas, including the release of new products and features on Neon’s consumer platform. Speaking about the investment, Pedro Conrade, Founder of Neon, stated:
“Neon was born with a clear purpose: to provide an accessible bank account to any Brazilian, placing user experience at the center of everything we do. Unlike banking incumbents in Brazil, we do not transfer the cost of inefficiency to our customers. We are thrilled to partner with our existing and new investors to continue working toward this shared vision.”
Neon added that the Series C is the third funding round to date. It raised a $22 million Series A in May 2018 from Propel Venture Partners, Monashees, Quona Capital, and Omidyar Network, later spun-off as Flourish Ventures, followed by its November 2019 Series B financing of $92 million co-led by General Atlantic and Banco Votorantim, Neon’s banking partner.
