Kontempo has raised $30 million in a seed round to continue expanding its buy now, pay later (BNPL) solution for B2B transactions in Latin America.
The FinTech will use the capital to grow its team, develop its merchant network and improve its technology, LatamList reported Friday (Aug. 5).
“Kontempo sees an opportunity with its BNPL product to increase the use of digital payments in the B2B space, boost sales for both online and offline distributors and suppliers to [small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)] and be an early mover in building critical payments infrastructure for the still small but fast-growing B2B eCommerce market,” Kontempo CEO and Co-Founder Matthew Meehan said in the report.
The company has 26 merchant partners in Mexico, and those merchant partners sell to 100,000 SMB buyers that can use the BNPL product, Meehan said in the report.
Using an application programming interface (API) provided by Kontempo, companies can allow their customers to pay in installments on their checkout page, according to the report.
PYMNTS reported June 6 that despite widespread payment changes and restrictions on cash use in the midst of the pandemic, Latin American countries were hesitant to embrace digital payments with open arms.
Read more: How Demand for Digital and Contactless Payments Is Growing Across Latin America
The rivalry between cash and digital has been Latin America’s key obstacle in the quest to become a digital-first economy.
While major strides still need to be made to promote financial inclusivity in Latin America, early research shows that for those citizens who are banked, digital transactions are slowly becoming the new norm.
The earliest indicator of Latin America’s ability to adapt to online payment tools comes by way of eCommerce, which is expected to grow in the region at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19% through 2025.
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