Kala

Kala operates as a fintech infrastructure company with a focus on streamlining the lending process for financial institutions in Latin America. Founded in Bogotá, Colombia, in 2021 by Manuel Alemán, Rodolfo Lazo, and Pablo Cattólica, the company aims to enhance financial inclusion across the region. The founders brought together over two decades of experience in the fintech industry to address the difficulties and time-consuming nature of digitizing credit processes for finance companies.

The company's core offering is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that functions as a lending-as-a-service infrastructure. This platform enables small and medium-sized finance companies, banks, credit unions, and businesses that sell on credit to digitize and accelerate their credit-granting operations. Kala's technology allows these lenders to offer and manage a variety of loan products, including working capital loans, revenue-based financing, buy now, pay later (BNPL) loans, and asset-backed loans. The business model is based on charging a SaaS fee for access to its platform. Specifically, Kala has developed a software for freelance credit advisors and a payroll deduction loan product for retirees (Libranzas a Pensionados), operating on a B2B2C model. This empowers independent credit advisors to serve more clients and increase their income.

Since its official launch in July 2022, Kala has demonstrated significant traction, processing over 50,000 credit operations within its first year. The company has successfully raised a total of $6 million in funding over two rounds. A pre-seed round in December 2021 brought in $2 million, led by Canary with participation from Acrew and Clocktower. This was followed by a $4 million seed round in December 2022, led by the Mexican venture capital firm Cometa and supported by existing investors as well as 99Startups. These funds are earmarked for expanding the company's product and technology teams and fueling its expansion into Mexico, alongside its continued focus on Colombia.

Keywords: lending-as-a-service, fintech infrastructure, SaaS, digital lending, credit origination, financial inclusion, Latin America, B2B2C finance, loan management platform, credit digitization, payroll deduction loans, BNPL infrastructure, working capital loans, revenue-based financing, credit for unbanked, Cometa, Canary, Acrew Capital, Clocktower Technology Ventures, 99Startups