Mexico's Clip hits unicorn status after SoftBank investment (updated)
10/06/2021 21:07
(Recasts; adds details on investment, context)
June 10 (Reuters) - Mexican payments startup Clip on
Thursday said its valuation has jumped to nearly $2 billion
after a recent investment led by SoftBank Latin America Fund and
Viking Global Investors LP, putting it in a small but growing
club of Mexican "unicorns."
The company was the first in Mexico to receive funding from
SoftBank's Latin America fund in 2019. The latest investment
round amounted to $250 million, Clip said.
The resources will help Clip "grow aggressively" in Mexico,
Chief Executive Adolfo Babatz said in a statement.
Clip, founded in 2012, offers a mobile credit card reader
that fits onto smartphones. Businesses across Mexico such as
cafes, corner stores and street vendors have embraced Clip as a
simple way to accept cards in a country heavily dependent on
cash.
Late last year, another SoftBank-backed company, used-car
platform Kavak, became Mexico's first known unicorn - lingo for
tech startups valued at more than $1 billion. It was joined in
that ranking last month by cryptocurrency trading platform
Bitso.
Source text for Eikon: urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nBw3mFccna
(Editing by David Gregorio)
((Reuters.Briefs@thomsonreuters.com;))