Floid is a chilean Open Finance fintech that powers financial inclusion and expands
the data availability in Latin America. It focuses on offering tools for quality
onboardings, risk assessments, and bank conciliations. Merchants plug into Floid, so
they can reach a wider range of customers and have a new way to interact with
them. Floid promote financial inclusion through easy-to-use evaluation flows, giving
users the alternative to share their financial information digitally.
A little bit of history
It all started in 2020 when Alfonso Maira (current CEO of Floid) who at the time was
working at Creditú, a fintech that provides mortgage loans, met with John
Grundstrom, founder and CEO of Instantor, a Swedish open banking company for
risk assessment, which in those years operated in 10 European countries. Thanks to
a mutual friend who introduces them, they bump into each other in Chile and start
talking about replicating the Instantor model in Latin America.
Sweden is a small country, with approximately 10 million inhabitants, so it is
customary in Sweden to make startups that integrate collaborators from different
countries. And this is how, since its inception, Floid incorporates multiculturalism as
part of its essence, looking for talent from anywhere in the world.
The rest of the founders join spontaneously in the same line. Delfina Peña (current
CRO), of Argentine nationality, who worked at Truora (Colombian company in the
world onboarding); and Tomás Contreras (current CTO) who incorporates his
knowledge in technology, and who had experience in companies such as Larraín
Vial and BCI.
Floid was the first fintech to achieve an official connection with Banco Estado in 2021
in Chile, and today they actively collaborate with FinteChile and government
institutions to promote Fintech laws and help with its configuration. They do the
same in the financial ecosystem of Peru and Colombia, where they were the first
Open Finance company to operate locally in both countries.
The pain points they solve
Only 24% of the population in Latin America can access financial products online
because of different scenarios: frictionated digital channels, there is no strategy from
governments in data availability, lack of Open Finance and consumer/data protection
laws, and lenders relying on negative data and credit bureaus to deliver products
online.
With Floid and Open Finance, 62% of the population could access financial products
online. This means 500 million people and 2 million businesses that are currently
segregated from the financial ecosystem.
Floid has more than 70 clients in Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico. Its clients are
mainly banks in the region, and some of them report on average, a 15% increase in
their channels of transactions, 25% increase in their addressable markets and 50%
increase in funnel conversion.
Expansion and growth
Floid recently became the first Latin American fintech to be selected by Mastercard
StartPath, an incubation program for the development of services and products for
Open Finance.
Through the program, the startup gains access to a mix of hands-on mentorship and
innovation opportunities to scale its products.
“Mastercard and Floid share a commitment to broaden the availability of data for
decision-making through innovation,” said Alfonso Maira, CEO and Co-Founder of
Floid. “There are millions of people in Latin America waiting to access financial
products and process payments online. With the opportunity to join Mastercard’s
program, we can co-create an inclusive digital economy, empowering consumers
and businesses in decision-making,” he says.
On the other hand, Floid has just finished its participation in an incubation program
with Google, which gave them USD $100,000 in credits to use in company products.
In addition, they were able to count on important mentoring to learn from Google
experts about the best practices in machine learning, cybersecurity, growth and
technology.
Financial institutions trust Floid because of its safeguards in cybersecurity and data
processing. They have just been certified with the international certificate ISO 27001,
which gives them the support to ensure the highest standards in information
management.
This year the idea is to double the team and be even more robust in Peru and
Colombia.