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A Colombian B2B payments startup, Supra, recently held an investment round that was led by Citi Bank. Apart from the major bank, the round also saw participation from H20 Capital and Far Out Ventures.
Citi’s support will help Supra in a number of ways
Supra is a B2B payments platform founded earlier this year, in 2023. Its purpose is to deliver cross-border payments, as well as treasury services, for small and medium-sized businesses that deal with import and export.
Citi itself acts as a preeminent banking partner for institutions with cross-border needs, as well as a global leader in wealth management. It is a valued personal bank in the US, but it also does business in almost 160 countries. As such, its investment into Supra is well within the company’s goals.
While Citi’s support of the new company will be crucial for its further development and growth, there is something that Supra can do for the bank in return. Specifically, as part of the deal, Supra will start leveraging Citi’s payments and FX technology platforms. In doing so, it will also contribute to its expansion across the country.
As for the new capital, it will be of great help in allowing the fintech to fulfill its new role in partnership with Foreign Exchange Market Intermediaries (IMC), as well as licensed Payment Service Providers. The company is set to play the role of a payment aggregator with these entities.
Supra intends to create the most advanced cross-border payments solutions
Supra’s co-founder and CEO, Emilio Pardo, commented on the company’s goals, stating that Supra’s team aims to develop cutting-edge cross-border payment solutions that would provide value-added services to the firm’s clients. In addition to that, its technology is meant to increase transaction speed and ensure that it can all be done at highly competitive rates.
Pardo also added that the firm’s technology is one of the first in the entire country that is regulatory compliant, specifically when it comes to regulations issued by the Colombian Central Bank in regard to payment aggregators.
Colombia currently has more than 40,000 companies that participate in import and export-related commercial activities. At the same time, the market for business-to-business (B2B) international payments in 2022 recorded around $134 billion, based on the data collected and published by the Colombian Tax Authority.
Citi’s investments lead for markets business, Aldo Alvarez, said that the bank has faith in Supra’s product, as well as its business model. Furthermore, Citi’s collaboration with the company will allow Supra to create competitive moats in the multi-billion dollar industry that is the import and export cross-border payments market in Colombia.
