Tribal, a B2B payments and financing platform for emerging markets, has introduced Tribal Ventures, which is a new fund that will provide equity financing for early-stage Fintechs.
The fund is specifically designed “to support projects that share Tribal’s mission to help SMBs thrive in emerging markets.”
Tribal Ventures will provide qualifying startups across the globe “with investments of up to $250,000.”
Last year, according to a recent report by CB Insights, Fintechs raised $132 billion in funding which “accounted for 21% of all venture dollars deployed that year.”
As a group, Fintechs “closed the highest number of early-stage deals in any industry.”
As Tribal Ventures is designed to further support these early-stage SMBs in a time of major growth, “helping Fintechs across the world focus on impact through innovation.”
Christine Chang, Tribal’s Head of Corporate Development and Ventures, who will be leading this initiative, stated:
“We created Tribal Ventures to help build an ecosystem that addresses a broader group of entrepreneurs with a more robust support system and set of resources. The B2B space is the next frontier in terms of what venture-backed startups can solve. We’re excited to invest in the best founders in this space, including crypto companies.”
While there are no geographic limitations on which startups can apply, Tribal Ventures will “support startups that also aim to support SMBs in emerging markets.”
Mohamed Elkasstawi, Chief Strategy Officer at Tribal, remarked:
“Tribal Ventures is focused on supporting companies that leverage blockchain technology to provide emerging market SMBs faster, easier, and more efficient access to financial services. New use-cases are emerging every day and Tribal is here to support that innovation.”
As noted in the update, Tribal Ventures is “not Tribal’s first show of support for blockchain technology.”
Recently, Tribal announced a partnership with Visa “to provide SMBs in the Latin American and Caribbean regions with increased access to both traditional and decentralized financial (DeFi) tools.”
Before that, in January 2022, Tribal also “completed the first-ever USD 40 million hybrid debt round combining stablecoins and fiat and began leveraging stablecoins to create a faster and more affordable mechanism for cross-border payments.”
In traditional funding, Tribal closed its Series B this February, “raising $60 million to support the continued development and expansion of its suite of financial services to help Latin American SMBs.”
Tribal is “a payments and financing platform using the latest emerging technologies to provide small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in emerging markets with better access to financial services.”
Tribal offers these SMBs access “to modern payment methods like multi-currency physical and virtual business credit cards, local and international wires, along with short-term financing, and a powerful spend management platform to track and control their expenses—all in one seamless interface.”
Tribal has raised funding from SoftBank Latin America Fund, QED Investors, BECO Capital, Stellar Development Foundation, and Coinbase Ventures, as well as additional crypto and strategic investors.
The company is also “among an elite group of companies chosen as part of the Visa FinTech Fast Track program.”
