Portão 3 raises $3.6 million in LatAm
Portão 3, a payment management and expenses control fintech founded in Minas Gerais, Brazil, recently announced it has raised $3.6 million in its seed round, which was led by Better Tomorrow Ventures (BTV) — a US fund specialized in early-stage fintechs, which has already provided capital to Brazilian companies such as Divibank and Clubbi.
Also participating in this round were funds such as Endeavor Scale Up, Fincapital, Pareto, and Flexpor, as well as other angel investors.
With the investment, the company plans to expand its team and its line of products and services, including corporate credit cards.
In 2021, Portão 3 participated in Y Combinator’s program and received $125,000 from the US accelerator.
With more than 600 clients, Portão 3 serves companies in the technology, financial services, and healthcare industries. Companies such as SulAmérica, CredPago, Junco, Bitso, and 123 Milhas, among many others, are part of Portão 3’s portfolio.
Facilitating B2B expenses management in LatAm
Founded in early 2020 by Bianca Pereira and Fernando Nery, the company facilitates the B2B expenses management process. Its clients can do transactions through a pre-paid card (physical and virtual), supported by Mastercard, with a credit function, which offers the functionalities of multiple users, multiple cards, dynamic budgets, and dashboards for real-time monitoring of transactions.
The payment infrastructure for Portão 3 was made by partner Swap, a fintech company operating in the banking sector (BaaS) sector.
“Our products and services stimulate and facilitate the financial management of companies, which helps bring technology to segments that in the last three years were greatly damaged by the pandemic. Therefore, the idea is to invest to impact and generate even more value for the industry positively,” explains the co-founder of Portão 3, Fernando Nery.
According to fintech data, in 2022, the company transacted $58 million and issued 1 million physical and virtual cards.
In the last year, the company has grown a lot, going against the market in a troubled period in which startups from various sectors find themselves in Latin America, with the fall of multi-million capital contributions.
Moreover, in a scenario where many companies are cutting back on staff, Portão 3 wants to more than triple its team, focusing on the growth of the startup’s product, technology, and sales areas.
With the investment, another of Portão 3’s plans is to expand its services in LatAm, looking at markets such as Mexico, where it already has a partnership with Bitso.
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“Our mission is to offer a technology that results in savings for large Brazilian companies and industries. We seek to facilitate and give greater visibility to the payment management of companies. We want employees on the go to experience more autonomy and freedom and financial teams to have more control over their spending,” explains co-founder Bianca Pereira.
An expanding market in Brazil
Besides Portão 3, other startups have advanced in the expanding corporate market.
In July 2022, for example, the startup Flash bought ExpenseOn, which later changed its name to Flash Expense.
Also, in the last year, the mobility app Wappa and the fintech Expense Mobi teamed up to create Stuo, a platform that already serves more than 5,000 businesses and adds up to 1 million users.
According to Portão 3, the company will seek this year to become a reference in the corporate spending sector, expanding its portfolio of solutions and building loyalty among corporate card users.