Argentine Julian Colombo worked for two decades at Santander, during which time he held leadership positions in several Latin American countries and at the bank’s headquarters in Spain, and during his tenure he was responsible for areas such as products and corporate customer service. , before leaving the bank with a new business in mind, aimed at addressing what he identified as one of the main opportunities in the segment he knows so well: the use of software in financial operations.
N5, the company that Colombo created with other former bank executives, has closed an undisclosed Series A round with the participation of Illuminate Capital, a venture capital company whose limited partners include some of the world’s largest financial institutions, including JP Morgan, Citi, Barclays, BNY Mellon, S&P Global and Jefferies.
The amount raised was eight times greater than the total requested, Colombo said. Bloomberg Line.
Other investors include Exor Ventures, the venture investment arm of Exor, a holding company controlled by the Agnelli family and shareholder of Ferrari and Stellantis; Madrone Capital Partners, a company owned by Walmart’s Walton family; and Overboost, a business builder.
In Brazil, LTS Investments, the investment holding company of the families of Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira; Also participating in the round were Arpex Capital, André Street’s investment company, and Eduardo Pontes, co-founders of Stone.
The main product developed by N5 on a patented basis is a platform that integrates hundreds and even thousands of pieces of software needed by a financial institution, such as CRM, BPM and Omnichannels.
N5 is Argentine and is present in that country, and in Brazil – where the founder and CEO resides – and in 13 other markets, including Chile, Peru, Paraguay and Panama, in addition to the United States.
Mastercard, Santander, Banco Credicorp, Zurich, Banco Atlas and Banco Credicorp are among its clients and its plan is to enter nine other markets in the coming months.
The company is growing 200% annually and plans to end 2023 with a 60% increase in the size of its team, which essentially operates on a remote work model.
According to N5, the use of the platform allows 53% gains in productivity and a 16% reduction in distribution costs, as well as an improvement in NPS (Net Promoter Score).
Colombo, chief executive and major shareholder of N5, told Bloomberg Line that traditional banks that have been operating for decades face a particular challenge: transitioning from legacy systems to new ones, something digital natives typically don’t have to do. And this represents opportunities in the market.
“We are seeing an exponential increase in demand, which exceeds our most optimistic forecasts. In regions where we don’t yet operate, our access list has grown significantly and customers request our platform in advance,” Colombo said.
“We understood it was time to partner with great partners with the expertise that will allow us to serve these customers faster and keep pace with our global growth,” Colombo said.
