El Salvadoran startup Cubo, in an effort to bring its digital payments solutions to Guatemala, Panama and Costa Rica, recently raised USD 3.5 million in seed financing from investors including IDB Lab, a member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group, and three venture capital firms, Colombia-based Latin Leap, Peru’s Seedstars and India’s Soma Capital. Cubo expects the new funding to allow it to reach about 70,000 small businesses – roughly 40 percent of which are owned by women.
While the sizes of the placements from the other investors remains confidential, IDB Lab’s investment is in the amount of USD 750,000. A portion of this placement was provided by We-Fi, a collaboration organized by the World Bank Group to support women-led small and medium-sized enterprises.
Established in 2021, Cubo seeks to offer an “easy-to-use solution” for smaller companies to complete sales via payment cards and QR codes. Cubo’s customers are mainly microentrepreneurs whose turnover is USD 230 per month or less. Among the firm’s prior investors is US-based Global Founders Capital.
By Anaya Jhaveri, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
IDB press release
https://www.iadb.org/en/news/idb-lab-invests-digital-payments-micro-and-small-businesses-central-america
ImpactAlpha article
https://impactalpha.com/el-salvadors-cubo-raises-3-5-million-to-digitize-payments-for-small-businesses/
Cubo homepage
https://www.cubopago.com
Latin Leap homepage
https://latinleap.vc
Seedstars homepage
https://www.seedstars.com
Soma Capital homepage
https://somacap.com
IDB Lab homepage
https://bidlab.org/
We-Fi homepage
https://we-fi.org
Previous MicroCapital article on IDB
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-soleco-deetken-idb-deliver-women-in-solar-training-in-jamaica/
Did you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Download a sample at https://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.
Similar Posts:
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Lipa Later, Mastercard Partner on Buy Now / Pay Later Services in Africa
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Seedstars Accepting Applications from Fintechs Offering “Financial Innovations for Women Affected by Migration” Through July 30
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: FINCA Ventures Places Equity in Agtech CassVita, Seeking to Boost Incomes from Farming Cassava in Cameroon
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Lipa Later Acquires Fellow E-commerce, DFS, Merchant Services Platform Sky.Garden of Kenya for $1.6m
- MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: FSPs in Ecuador to Evaluate Role of Bias in Financial Access for Women-led MSMEs with Support from IDB Invest, RFD
