$172.5 million in fintech funding (equity and debt)

Hola amig@s fintech,

We began this week with a spectacular eclipse in the Northern part of our American Continent. On a personal note, I took all the necessary precautions to watch the partial eclipse in Mexico City (using scientifically approved lenses) and it was amazing! 

Now, as we enter a new week, we're excited to announce that the Mexico Business Forum 2024 will take place in Mexico City on April 24-25, 2024. This event features a notable Finance and Fintech agenda with distinguished speakers, among many tech innovation topics. TWIF Latam paid subscribers interested in attending can enjoy a 10% discount. If interested, email us at latam@thisweekinfintech.com for more information.

Please find below this week’s front page of LatAm fintech news. If you’re reading this on the web, we’d appreciate your support by sharing and subscribing.  

💛 Until next weekend. Até a próxima!

• Lorena

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📊 Stat of the Week

Salvy, the Brazilian enterprise mobile operator, stood out as the sole LatAm startup in the latest Y Combinator batch. This is noteworthy considering there were 33 Latin American companies in Y Combinator's winter 2022 batch, 16 in summer 2022, and 10 in winter 2023. (Source by Whitepaper).

📖  Read of the Week

The “Opportunities for Generative AI in Financial Services” report by Visa and This Week in Fintech highlights how large financial institutions have focused on using generative AI not just in consumer-focused initiatives. In addition to building conversational interfaces, they are exploring applications in internal processes to increase efficiency, reduce costs, automate tasks that are currently manual, and minimize the risks inherent in having such a large user base.

🦉 Post of the Week

🎙️ Podcast of the Week

💸 Venture Financing

💸 Equity

🇧🇷 Akad, the Brazilian B2B insurtech, raised a $22.5 million Series A round led by Valor Capital Group and Across Capital, and with the participation of Actyus, Endeavor Catalyst, and Endeavour Scale-Up Ventures.

💵 Debt 

🇨🇴 Nubank Colombia secured $150 million from the  U.S. International Development Financial Corporation to expand the company’s operations.

☯️ Exits

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

🇦🇷 HSBC announced the sale of its Argentinian division to Grupo Financiero Galicia for $550 million, to focus on its activities in Asia.

🚀 Product Launches & Partnerships

💻 Fintech 

🇨🇷 Blimboo, the Costa Rica-based multi-currency processing platform, announced the launch of a tailored product for the tourism sector, offering solutions for digitizing sales and multi-currency payments, including intelligent sales pages to simplify currency exchange fluctuations for businesses. 

🇲🇽 Kueski, the Mexican BNPL provider, announced the introduction of in-store payments with its Kueski Pay app, enabling offline transactions for unbanked consumers. This solution aims to bridge the gap for millions without reliable internet access, boosting sales for partner merchants.

🌎 BCP Global, the US-based provider of digital solutions for financial advisors, announced the launch of portfolios featuring BlackRock's iShares iBonds, providing investment options tailored to various risk profiles, through its ONE APP platform for users in LatAm.

🌎 Nubank and Wise Platform, the UK-based money transfer and currency exchange platform, announced a partnership to expand its Ultravioleta offering with a new global account tailored for high-income clients, enabling currency conversion from Brazilian real to USD and EUR in real-time. With this solution, Nubank expands into the travel sector.

🏦 Financial Services & Banking

🇧🇷 Mercado Bitcoin, the Brazilian digital asset platform, and Escala, the Brazilian VC fund, announced a partnership to enable the tokenization of a $5.6 million investment in Assas, the Brazilian financial management solutions platform. This partnership will provide access to investment opportunities in Asaas for qualified investors, previously only accessible to major VC funds.

📜 Policy

🇲🇽 EKT, the Mexican tech and payment innovation company from Grupo Elektra, and was authorized by the Mexican financial regulatory authority (CNBV) as an electronic payments fund institution under the Fintech Law. Tec SDF, the Mexican crowdfunding platform, was also authorized to operate as an institution under the Law.

🇧🇷 Brasil Cash, the Brazilian financial solutions startup for small merchants and independent professionals, was authorized by the Central Bank of Brazil to operate as a payment institution.

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📰 Other News 

🌎 Clarissa Morrison was named Global CFO at Clara.

🌎 Dan Schulman was named Managing Partner at Valor Capital.

🇲🇽 Ignacio Caride was named Executive President and General Director of Walmart Mexico and Central America (Walmex).

🇨🇱 Ignacio Briones and Carlos Alves were named Independent Directors of the fintech Tenpo Bank of the Credicorp Group.

🇲🇽 Uber suspends its fintech strategy in Mexico despite having obtained the regulator’s authorization to offer financial products.

🇲🇽 The Association of Entrepreneurs of Mexico (ASEM) and Siigo Aspel, software to the administration of SMEs, presented "Finance Thursdays", a free online business financial education program that offers training and tools for SMEs to improve their financial health, and increase their profitability and competitiveness.

🇨🇴 Habi, the digital platform that aims to simplify the process of buying and selling, announced the closing of a $30 million financing agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is the investment arm of the World Bank, as well as with the Victory Park Capital fund.

📚 Deeper Reads

Crypto Adoption Sees Great Potential in Latin America

What do economic changes mean for digital lenders?

Embedded finance: the key to financial evolution (ES)

Where is the Venture Capital industry in Central America going? (ES)

Education in Latam and the Caribbean: a call to action

📣 LatAm startup alum who have been impacted by layoffs and recruiters looking for top talent, check out the Startups Alumni and Layoffs Brasil databases.  

If you’re looking to hire from a group of 10,000+ smart, motivated fintech professionals, come pick up a Collective Pass and post a job here.  If you’re looking for your next adventure at one of the best fintech companies, check out the open roles here!

Made in LatAm with 💛 by Elena, Daniela, and Lorena

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*Errata: Last week, we mistakenly stated that Banco Popular was from Honduras; it is from the Dominican Republic.