RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The story of Sérgio All and Fernanda Ribeiro, the founders of Conta Black, is the subject of episode 87 of Do Zero ao Topo podcast.
Entrepreneur Sérgio All felt first hand a problem that many Brazilian entrepreneurs face: he was denied credit for being black.
According to research by Brazil’s Sebrae (Small Business Administration), black entrepreneurs have their loan requests denied three times more often than white entrepreneurs with similar financial standing in Brazil.
“I left very frustrated. As I walked through the revolving door on my way out, I said: ‘I’m going to open a bank.’ My partner, who was my creative director at the time, simply laughed at me. It was the 2000s, there were no fintechs, no financial democratization. But I started to delve into this universe,” said Sérgio, who at the time owned an advertising agency, as he recalled the incident during an interview on the Do Zero ao Topo podcast.
Sérgio and Fernanda Ribeiro’s story, the founders of Conta Black, is the subject of episode 87 of the podcast Do Zero ao Topo. The program can be followed and the full interview can be heard on Youtube, ApplePodcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Spreaker, Google Podcast, Castbox, Amazon Music, and other audio providers in the country.
It took a considerable amount of time for Sérgio’s dream to materialize: between the initial frustration and the founding of Conta Black, almost 20 years elapsed. During this time, the Brazilian digital and startup market has matured. Conta Black was founded in 2017 with the proposal of being a digital account for individuals and companies focused on the less well-off social classes C, D, E.
The startup was the first digital account founded by black entrepreneurs to gain scale among the over 800 Brazilian fintechs. Currently, Conta Black has more than 12,000 clients and another 9,000 pre-approved.
The challenge ahead is still great. “Our goal is to have a large product and service portfolio that meets the specific needs of our audience, which doesn’t have access to many financial services,” explains Fernanda Ribeiro.
Despite the digitalization observed during the pandemic, 34 million Brazilians – about 21% of the population that could theoretically be banked – still don’t have a bank account or barely use one. The data is taken from a study conducted by the Locomotiva Institute in January this year.
To reach this public, Conta Black, which raised funds with an angel investor in its inception, is negotiating a new round of investments. Learn the full story and the founders’ business insight in the podcast.
About Do Zero ao Topo
The podcast Do Zero ao Topo each week features a prominent entrepreneur in the Brazilian market to tell his or her story, sharing the greatest challenges faced along the way and the main strategies used to build the business.
The program has already hosted names such as André Penha, co-founder of QuintoAndar, David Neeleman, founder of Azul, José Galló, executive responsible for the rise of Renner, Guilherme Benchimol, founder of XP Investimentos, Artur Grynbaum, CEO of the Boticário Group, Sebastião Bonfim, creator of Centauro, and Edgard Corona, of the Smart Fit chain.
Source: Infomoney