FAZ Cred raises US$15,5 million and accelerates its expansion in private credit

The Brazilian fintech FAZ Cred, which specializes in payroll-deductible credit and loans, raised R$80 million (approximately US$15,5 million) in just 60 days through a new Receivables Investment Fund (FIDC). The new vehicle tripled the company’s total contract volume and marks a new stage in its transformation from a company focused on condominiums to a specialist in private payroll-deductible credit.

From condominium credit to payroll-deductible loans

With five years in the market, FAZ Cred was originally founded in 2021 under the name Condolivre, with the goal of providing credit to condominiums.

The company initially built its business through exclusive agreements with condominiums to serve doormen and building managers, representing a base of approximately 60.000 formally employed workers.

This model changed after new rules for private payroll-deductible loans took effect in March 2025.

The regulatory change allowed any worker with a formal employment contract to access this type of credit directly through the government’s app, where financial institutions compete in an auction of offers. Companies and banks no longer needed to have prior agreements in place.

The new system also allowed payments to continue automatically when a worker changed formal jobs, reducing the risk associated with job loss.

According to the Central Bank and the Ministry of Labor and Employment, the market portfolio subsequently grew from R$40.000 million to R$140.000 million.

For Condolivre, however, the new rules eliminated the competitive advantage created by its exclusive agreements with condominiums.

The company responded by largely abandoning unsecured credit for condominiums, changing its name to FAZ Cred, and shifting its business toward payroll-deductible loans.

“When we saw the opportunity in private payroll-deductible credit, we decided to specialize in it and operate directly. It’s a market that’s growing quickly, but we believe it will take some diligence to operate,” FAZ Cred CEO Henrique Ruscaexplained to NeoFeed.

The new FAZ Cred Mais Trabalhador fund

The company’s new vehicle, FAZ Cred Mais Trabalhador, focuses on the healthcare and education sectors.

The initial strategy was to sell FAZ Cred’s credit analysis platform to third parties operating in other areas of payroll-deductible lending. However, investor interest led the company to take a more direct role in the credit chain.

According to Rusca, investors were interested in allocating capital to the business, but did not necessarily want to operate the lending process themselves.

“We had a lot of investors knocking on our door: ‘I find this business interesting, I have capital and I’d like to allocate it.’ But we would answer, ‘I’ll give you the car, but you have to find the driver.’ And a lot of people would say, ‘No, thanks.’”

With a lack of investors willing to take on the operation, FAZ Cred decided to manage the entire credit chain and structure the new fund directly.

Patrimonial backs the new vehicle

The main investor behind FAZ Cred’s investment vehicles is asset manager Patrimonial, which manages approximately R$1.600 million (US$309,5 million), according to Anbima data.

Patrimonial was already a partner of the fintech in its first condominium-focused fund, FAZ Cred Condolivre FIDC, which has approximately R$160 million (US$31 million) in assets under management.

“After getting to know our operation [through the first fund], they felt confident enough to start a second vehicle focused on new markets,” Rusca said.

The new FIDC targets sectors with higher salaries, particularly healthcare and education. Even so, the average loan amount has remained between R$1.500 and R$1.600 (approximately US$290 and US$310), in line with the original fund.

Rusca explained that this is intentional, as the company aims to diversify risk rather than concentrate credit among a small number of borrowers.

FAZ Cred limits portfolio concentration

FAZ Cred limits how much any one person can borrow on a recurring basis and applies a similar restriction to paying companies.

No individual company accounts for more than 1% of the portfolio, allowing the fintech to avoid excessive concentration in a single borrower or employer.

Because the new vehicle is still recent, its delinquency rate has not yet fully matured.

In the condominium-focused fund, which has a longer track record, delinquency is between 10% and 15%. FAZ Cred receives approximately 80% of the expected amount through a direct government transfer and recovers another 5% to 10% through its own collections operation.

Competition in an open credit market

The government’s decision to open the auction to any bank also changed FAZ Cred’s internal operations.

Although unrestricted competition reduced originations compared with the period when the company operated through exclusive agreements, the fintech’s potential market in the condominium segment grew from 60.000 to 400.000 workers.

To maintain originations without relying exclusively on offering the lowest rate in the auction, FAZ Cred uses its own relationship channels developed over the years, artificial intelligence agents, direct service via WhatsApp, and internal pricing tools that have been refined since the company’s founding.

“We ran several pricing tests to find offers that would convert better in the auction. I admit that at first we thought it would be difficult to compete with the big banks. But condominiums are generally small and medium-sized businesses; they have two or three employees, and not everyone wants to specialize in this,” Rusca explained.

Expansion into new sectors

FAZ Cred expects its potential market in the new healthcare and education segments to be between five and ten times larger than its condominium customer base.

According to Rusca, the new fund is also growing at twice the origination rate of the company’s previous vehicle.

The fintech’s next step is to continue opening up new fronts and assess opportunities in the automotive and civil construction sectors.

The company is particularly interested in sectors with high reemployment rates, as this characteristic supports the mechanism that allows loan deductions to continue when a worker changes jobs.

“We like sectors with a high reemployment rate,” Rusca said.

According to the executive, a high layoff rate in a sector does not necessarily deter FAZ Cred, since the company can recover the loan when the worker is hired by a new employer.

From Condolivre to FAZ Cred

FAZ Cred was founded by Henrique Rusca, Rodrigo Gebara, and Luiz Guilherme Moraes.

The company began as Condolivre and raised a seed round of R$13 million (approximately US$2,5 million) in 2021, led by TAG Investimentos and Vila Velha Corretora, alongside angel investors.

The shift toward payroll-deducted private credit reflects a broader transformation in its strategy. Rather than relying on a specific customer segment, FAZ Cred is using its credit infrastructure, data, technology, and investor relationships to expand into sectors with significantly larger potential markets.