Strategic new investors join the round including Tinder founder, Justin Mateen, Sergio Furio from Creditas, Daniel Vogel from Bitso, Alfonso de los Rios from Nowports, Ricardo Weder from Justo and Magma Fund
First Latin American investment from international entrepreneur Sebastien Breteau founder of QIMA
Existing investors doubled down on investment, confirming REWORTH’s market momentum.
CEO and Co-founder Raphael Kappeler highlights the profile of investors as a further endorsement of the business: “Tough trading conditions demonstrate not just the resilience of our business model but its relevance to consumers in Mexico and beyond . . .”
Mexico City; 17 October ’22 – REWORTH, the Mexico-based startup that enables banks to offer cash-back services to retailers, today announced an extension to their seed funding to a total of USD $6.6 million, with participants including Magma, Justin Mateen’s JAM Fund and Sergio Furio’s Actyus Fund (including the K5 Fund and NOA Capital), as well as new angel investors including Alfonso de los Rios and Daniel Vogel.
In a separate announcement, the company also confirmed its participation in Barclays’ Rise Growth Academy, the prestigious fintech startup growth programme which has helped companies raise an average of GPB50 million ($55 million) every year since its foundation in 2015. REWORTH becomes the first Latin American startup to participate in the academy whose support includes mentorship, a founder community and access to funding to help companies scale globally.
REWORTH’s CEO and Co-founder Raphael Kappeler, describes the announcements as a clear proof of the company’s momentum.
“The extension of our seed round is notable – not merely for the funding, which is timely and welcome – but for the quality of the participants; all proven investors with a track record of growth. The selection by Barclays’s Rise Academy also reflects the originality of our proposition. It’s not simply about replicating someone else’s business model in Latin America; it’s a completely new offering designed specifically in and for the region,” he said.
Justin Mateen is the co-founder and former CMO of the popular social discovery platform, Tinder, while other new angel investors include Alfonso de los Rios (founder of the logistics unicorn Nowports), Daniel Vogel (founder of the Bitcoin currency platform, Bitso), Sebastien Breteau (founder of smart quality solutions start-up QIMA), and Ricardo Weder (founder of Mexico’s leading e-grocer Justo), as well as the angel fund Bluewatch Ventures.
Raphael explains that REWORTH’s acceptance into the Barclays Rise Growth Academy is a further endorsement of the company’s proposition.
“We are delighted and proud to be the first Latin American start-up to participate in the academy. The selection criteria is extremely rigorous; the academy is looking for fintech startups with a genuinely compelling and original business model. The fact that we’ve managed to (more than) double our seed funding during exceptionally tough economic conditions is a clear endorsement of the same.” he said.
“The challenging economic environment and – in particular – high levels of inflation represent huge challenges, not only to banks and retailers, but also the consumers they serve. Cash-back offers the possibility of effectively ‘100% fulfilment’ (customers receive the cash-back whether or not they are consciously aware of it); there are no forms to complete, or personal information to divulge. Retailers are generating far more return from cashback than traditional marketing campaigns, where opt-outs and non-completion rates are climbing. Such returns can now be passed directly on to their customers in the form of effective discounts generating loyalty for the retailer and – in turn – for the bank card issuer facilitating the same. It’s the essence of what we call ‘frictionless loyalty’; this is the power and potential of our business model”
REWORTH is consolidating its position as Latin America’s market leader in API infrastructure connecting banks and merchants.
“Our AI-powered consumer engagement solution is helping retailers to increase revenues on a daily basis (on average: 53% increase of transaction volumes and 48% increase of ticket size) and banks and card issuers to drive engagement. We will continue to bring hyper personalization and instant cashback to our partners and grow in Latin America.”
Raphael adds that the current trading environment actually highlights the true value and benefit of cash-back.
“Our ability to secure these milestones in the midst of unprecedented trading conditions demonstrate not just the resilience of our business model but its relevance to consumers in Mexico and beyond. Cashback is a unique, non-invasive and practical way to mitigate the effects of inflation; and it applies equally to retailers as to their customers. REWORTH´s objectives are ambitious in the next couple of months, we want to onboard one bank per month until the end of the year to a total of 6m card users, reduce integration time and set ourselves up to fully scale across Latin America,” he says.
About REWORTH
REWORTH simplifies the way banks and merchants to interact with their customers, enabling them to understand, predict and influence consumer behavior through the use of cashback. Financial institutions share anonymous transactional data to personalize and deliver merchant funded offers to increase engagement and revenues.
Beyond customer engagement, partners benefit from 1st party data marketing, real-time business intelligence and competitor analysis. Reworth will power the future of Open Finance via its proprietary API infrastructure enabling third parties to use its rails for services such as credit scoring, fraud prevention, B2B payments, crypto access, PFM and more.
The company’s business model requires no initial investment for merchants, their cost is the reward they offer and it is applied once a purchase is made. Financial institutions pay a small fee only when they make money after a transaction is done, this removes entry barriers, allowing us to give consumers a wide range of rewards that are relevant to their everyday needs.