Episode 016 - FOCUS-ON-FINTECH Series André Bastos, Co-Founder, Open-Co São Paulo, Brasil

• Welcome to Distilling Venture Capital.  I am your host, Bill Griesinger
• Distilling VC is a visionary podcast that provides an insightful and informed view of the key trends affecting the VC and tech startup world, including Fintech.  My mission is to cut through and go beyond the hype that tends to dominate the tech and VC landscape.  And provide you with information you can use.

Episode Introduction:

• Today’s Episode is another in my Focus-on-Fintech Series where I provide you with a close-up look into the top companies in the Fintech sector that are bringing new innovations to the financial services market globally;
• In Today’s Episode, I once again highlight the hot FINTECH market in Brasil.
• I have the pleasure of welcoming back to the show, André Bastos, who is a Co-Founder and the Chief People and Strategy Officer at Open-Co, the largest Consumer Credit Fintech in Brazil.
• André, thank you for coming back to the show…
• André, the last time you and spoke it was October 2020 and the company was called REBEL.  After a merger of Geru and REBEL, which was announced just last month, you are now Open-Co.  But the REBEL and Geru brands remain under that umbrella…
• Tell us a little bit about this merger and what it means for scaling your consumer lending services business in Brasil; What is Open-Co?
• Geru and Rebel are both in the business of extending unsecured consumer credit, but your models are somewhat different, can you explain?
• A short time after announcing the formation of Open-Co, you all had another major announcement on the fund-raising side of the business; That being the closing of a $270MM credit facility, led by Goldman Sachs - very impressive 
• This announcement is on top of a Series C equity round with IFC and Goldman as leads, correct?
• Highlight your proprietary Credit Scoring Technology – Importance this played in building credibility with Lenders/Investors prior to your recent credit facility.
• I would love to dig into your recent post on Linkedin about the “Tony Awards and Open Co.”  I thought it was very creative, had great take-aways.  Can we talk about your thoughts, ideas and motivation for putting it together?
  • It’s a great piece b/c it’s about lessons and what we learn from our personal experiences and how we can utilize those lessons to build our own leadership, mentoring skills, stimulate innovative ideas to improve the lives of others…and grow personally…
  • You discuss your personal experiences in attempting to secure financing for your first home in Chicago;
  • You even weave some Chicago history in from the Great Fire, to the 1892 World’s Fair, the rich history and importance of the Theatre in Chicago, focusing on Victory Gardens…and more;
  • But mostly it was about learning from our experiences…and applying those learnings to improving our effectiveness and growing in the workplace

• The home page of your website begins with this statement; “The credit market in Brazil is one of the most dysfunctional and exclusionary in the world.  High default rates encourage traditional financial institutions to charge even higher interest rates, further driving defaults.”       And finishes the home page with this statement;
• “Open Co believes that the key to building groundbreaking credit products lies not only in technology, but mainly in building a relationship of trust with customers.   The time for expensive debts, bureaucracy and closed doors is over.    The future is now Open.”
• Historical Perspective Re Technology:  What a difference a few years makes!  I found this in my archive of articles from Dec. 2015 in TechCrunch regarding Whatsapp;  
• A judge in Brazil wants to shut down WhatsApp and Brazil’s Congress wants to shut down the social web next; WhatsApp was shut down for 48 hours mainly because the popular messaging platform had not cooperated in turning over user data and information in an investigation;
• WhatsApp is the single most used app in Brazil with around over 100 million users;
• Incredible to think this was happening just a few years ago in Brazil…
• Growth Plans for 2021-2022 – And Other…

Closing Remarks:
André, thank you very much for joining me today…

Contact Information – Open Co

• André, how can those seeking additional information and wishing to learn more about Open Co contact you or the firm? 
• Website:  www.open-co.com.br
• Linkedin:  André Bastos

Thank you for joining me for this Episode of DVC.  I hope you found the conversation with André Bastos and Open-Co interesting and it gave you some things to think about regarding developments in Fintech services in Brasil.  I look forward to joining on my next Episode of DVC.