By Valentine Hilaire
(Reuters) - Colombian-founded Simetrik, a startup offering business-to-business services to streamline complex financial tasks, raised $55 million in a funding round led by Goldman Sachs, which two executives said will be mainly used to boost activity beyond the region.
Simetrik's financial and accounting services are aimed at companies that make more than $150 million in sales every year and currently handles close to $150 billion in transactions annually, the startup's Chief Executive Alejandro Casas and Chief Operating Officer Santiago Gomez told Reuters in a video interview.
The company operates in over 35 countries, but 80% of its workforce is located in Latin America.
Simetrik has smaller-scale operations in Asia and Africa due to the global reach of such clients as U.S.-listed dLocal, and it is now seeking to expand further.
"One of the reasons Goldman Sachs invested in us is due to our global reach. We already have clients with operations in Asia, Africa and Europe, and we are implementing an aggressive expansion as we have already proven our model works everywhere," Simetrik's Casas said.
Falabella Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst and MercadoLibre (NASDAQ:MELI) fund are among the other investors in Simetrik's Series B round. The company declined to say what total value was implied by the latest fundraising round.
Mexican bottler and retailer Femsa, Brazilian bank Itau Unibanco and Argentina's MercadoLibre are among the startup's clients.