Delend

Delend operates as a financial technology firm in Brazil, providing a specialized infrastructure for large companies to extend credit to their Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) clients. Founded in 2023 by Aurimar Cerqueira, Licio C., and Fernando Wosniak Steler, who serves as CEO, the company is headquartered in São Paulo. Delend addresses the challenges of SME lending—such as unreliable data, lack of traditional collateral, and high operational costs—by deploying an agent-based system powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Open Finance. This platform analyzes public, private, and Open Finance data to assess creditworthiness, manage payments, and monitor risk with predictive models.

The company's core business involves providing a modular infrastructure that larger corporations can integrate via APIs into their existing ERPs and B2B platforms. This enables them to offer credit, such as the anticipation of electronic bills of exchange (duplicatas), to their SME customer base with greater security and automation. The AI agent learns from transactional behavior to qualify the SME base, educate users, and optimize credit terms like limits and repayment schedules, making the lending process more scalable and profitable for their enterprise clients. Delend functions as a payment institution authorized by the Central Bank of Brazil, ensuring its operations meet high standards of governance and compliance. In its first two years, the platform has processed 14.6 million receivable titles, amounting to R$32 billion.

A significant milestone occurred in March 2024, when Delend announced a R$100 million funding round, which coincided with the partial acquisition of Rede OK for R$80 million. This strategic acquisition integrated Rede OK's existing network of 40,000 SMEs, significantly expanding Delend's market reach. The funding was sourced from a mix of venture capital funds including AirBorne Ventures and 2TM, angel investors, and the founders themselves. This move is set to help unlock the market for electronic receivables, a sector with substantial annual movement in Brazil. Keywords: SME lending, credit infrastructure, Open Finance, Artificial Intelligence, financial technology, B2B fintech, receivables financing, credit analysis, payment automation, risk management, Delend, Aurimar Cerqueira, Licio C., Fernando Wosniak Steler, Rede OK, electronic bill of exchange, API integration, credit scoring, decentralized lending, asset tokenization