Stark Financial institution, one of many few Latin America startups to obtain funding from Jeff Bezos’ household workplace, is producing earnings from its enterprise of serving to firms deal with funds, whereas leaving money raised from its funding rounds almost untouched.
The Sao Paulo-based firm dealt with 155 billion reais ($31 billion) of funds in 2023, a three-fold bounce from a 12 months earlier, whereas greater than doubling web revenue to 71.5 million reais, founder Rafael Stark mentioned in an interview, disclosing the carefully held agency’s 2023 monetary outcomes for the primary time.
The startup, which assists firms in processing funds, invoices and receivables, is targeted on gaining home market share from giant company banks, mentioned Stark, who owns 38% of the agency. Its record of 600 or so purchasers consists of Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, Localiza Hire a Automotive SA, Cia Ultragaz SA and fellow startups Loft and QuintoAndar.
“Whereas lots of tech firms are attempting to cease dropping cash we’re posting excessive ranges of profitability,” Stark, 35, mentioned. “There’s no have to maintain elevating cash and diluting my stake. It’s higher to develop and create far more worth additional down the street.”
Sequence B
In its Sequence B spherical in 2022, Stark raised $45 million from traders together with Bezos Expeditions, the Amazon.com Inc. founder’s household workplace, and Ribbit Capital at a valuation of $250 million. Earlier traders included Fabio Igel of Monashees Capital, Stewart Butterfield of Slack Applied sciences Inc., Brian Armstrong of Coinbase International Inc. and Arash Ferdowsi of Dropbox Inc.
Stark mentioned the agency’s market share in varied metrics stays small amongst company banks in Brazil, displaying potential for development. Whereas Stark doesn’t have a proper banking license, it’s in a position to lend from its personal money available, and is planning to spend extra on advertising in 2024 after years of preserving a low profile to construct the product.
Stark mentioned the corporate permits its purchasers to automate time-consuming duties like billing and payroll.
“When an organization manages lots of transactions they will misplace data, and in the event that they’re not organized they will lose some huge cash,” he mentioned. “We enable the corporate to be extra environment friendly. Which means typically a workforce of 30 people who do guide duties and commit human errors might be lowered to about 5 folks to do the identical work.”
About 30% of its almost 90 staff are engineers.
Stark’s give attention to serving to fellow tech firms and the flexibility to customise options for purchasers is a bonus in contrast with giant Brazilian banks, mentioned Bruno Diniz, a managing companion at consulting agency Spiralem, which works with fintechs.
‘Attention-grabbing Area of interest’
“They discovered a really fascinating area of interest,” Diniz mentioned. “They’re very lean of their tech stack, which permits them to supply this tradition kind of service for the massive gamers. And as soon as they create a buyer answer for one participant, they replicate that and begin providing to all the opposite purchasers.”
Born Rafael Castro de Matos within the central state of Goias, Stark studied engineering in Brazil and later obtained a scholarship within the US, the place he attended California Polytechnic College and Stanford College. He based his agency in 2018 and legally modified his surname to Stark on all official paperwork.
In drawing parallels to digital financial institution Nu Holdings Ltd.’s development path, he anticipates a possible preliminary public providing a few decade after founding — or near 2029 — and is targeted for now on Brazil and Sao Paulo, the place the majority of the nation’s largest corporations are based mostly.
One obvious distinction at Stark from different tech startups is that staff are anticipated to be within the workplace 5 days per week. To sweeten the deal, he’s constructed out the highest flooring of the constructing to quickly home a bar, restaurant and assembly areas for workers. Stark additionally says he pays above market wages whereas providing a stipend for these dwelling near the workplace.
“I don’t imagine in distant work,” he mentioned. “We’d like people who find themselves aligned with what we’re constructing. So somebody who’s aligned with their very own consolation zone and distant work isn’t aligned with the values of Stark. To do massive issues, that you must go away your consolation zone.”
