Classifieds Giant Prosus Invests in Mexican Challenger Bank

The international classifieds powerhouse Prosus, which counts property portals Imovirtual, Property24 and Otodom among its many brands, has today announced its investment in Mexican challenger bank Klar. Prosus lead the bank’s Series A funding round which achieved some $15 million from International Finance Corporation and Quona Captial among others. The capital raised will reportedly be used to strengthen Klar’s engineering capabilities in both its Mexican and German locations.

The Mexican market has long suffered from scant access to financial solutions, with only 10% of the population owning a credit card and half not having a bank account. Prosus’s new investment is part of a wave of new financial entities looking to technology to change that and in doing so remove friction in property transactions.

Speaking about his company’s capabilities, Klar co-founder and CEO Stefan Moller said: “We’ve built a new banking infrastructure core that aligns with the financial needs of consumers and allows us to service a massive segment of the population in Mexico that has previously been left behind when it comes to financial services.”

The injection of capital from a classifieds player into a company looking to smooth over transactions in a market with big potential might be considered indicative of a broader trend of classifieds players looking to adjacent industries to extract more value from transactions. We have seen recently how PropertyGuru is looking to its own financial services in Singapore and Realtor.com partnering with mortgage providers in the US.

“We invest in sectors of the economy where technology can lead to meaningful change in the lives of consumers. Klar has identified a massive need in the Mexican financial market and brings a unique solution through their credit and debit offering,” said Banafsheh Fathieh of Prosus Ventures.