Colombian fintech Plurall closed a pre-seed rounding, raising $1.5 million and $10 million debt in what is being labelled a “milestone for entrepreneurship in the region”.

Backed by strategic investors in markets such as the United States, United Kingdom, Spain and more, Plurall intends to launch its microbusiness-orientated service as a result of the new funding next month. 

The Colombian firm aims to improve financial inclusion for solopreneurs in the Latin America region. Plurall has gained confidence from investors with their work, as an undisclosed London-based debt and equity fund financed a $10 million debt facility for the company. 

“This is perhaps the first time in Latin America fintech and one of the first times around the world, that a startup is able to raise international institutional debt for originating their first loans,” stated Glenn Goldman, Co-Founder and CSO of Plurall. 

“The typical path is to use expensive equity for the first year or two before being able to access an institutional debt facility.”

According to Federico Gómez, Co-Founder and CEO of Plurall, “out of almost 10 million microbusinesses in Colombia, only 1.6 million have some degree of financial inclusion”. Gómez also notes that there is a $45 billion lending and $100 billion payment opportunities which incumbents are only serving at 6%. 

To incentivise Plurall’s efforts to support the microbusinesses of Latin America, the firm has teamed up with Visa. The partnership hopes to set about financial inclusion for those Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through digital payment solutions. 

Adriana Cárdenas, Country Manager for Visa Colombia, commented: “We are glad to announce our partnership with Plurall which responds to our purpose to work more closely with FinTech in Colombia and to connect more people and businesses through innovative, fast and secure digital payment solutions.

“We will work to present different benefits, specially developed to solve different micro businesses needs and help more SMEs have access to digital financial solutions.”