Hola amig@s fintech,

Thanks to everyone who went to our São Paulo fintech happy hour with Ensemblex! 

We are starting to get ready for FINNOSUMMIT 2024! So plan ahead and secure your place. If  you are a TWIF paid subscriber, you get a 20% off, email us at latam@thisweekinfintech.com. On September 25 - 26 in Mexico City, the TWIF team will also be present at this year's event. 

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

Mexico received over $66 billion in remittances in 2023, representing less than 4% of its GDP. In contrast, remittances account for over 25% of the GDP in Nicaragua and El Salvador, making them vital to their economies. Remittances have become more accessible and efficient with fintech innovations facilitating faster and cheaper transactions (Source).

📖  Read of the Week

The study "Towards a National AI Strategy 2024" by the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Mexico and the Mexican Academy of Cybersecurity and Digital Law. provides a comprehensive analysis of the state of artificial intelligence (AI) in Mexico and offers strategic recommendations for developing a national strategy in this area. The report also emphasizes the need of a collaboration between the government, academia, the private sector, and civil society to consolidate a future vision that positions Mexico as a leader in AI.

🦉 Post of the Week

🎙️ Podcast of the Week

💸 Venture Financing

💸 Equity

🌎 Matera, the Brazilian-US paytech, secured a $100 million investment from Warburg Pincus.  

🇧🇷 Clube FII, the Brazilian financial database platform, raised $1.7 million led by L4 and with the participation of Grupo Travessia. 

🇧🇷 Caliza, the Brazilian instant payment startup, raised a $8.5 million Pre-Series A round led by Initialized Capital, with the participation of New Form Capital, Abstract Ventures, Class 5 Global, Quona, Kraynos Capital, and Digital Currency Group.

🇲🇽 OCN, the Mexican car rental models for digital platforms’ workers, raised $86 million in a Series A round led by Caravela Capital, Collide Capital, and Great North Ventures. 

💵 Debt 

🇵🇪 Préstamo Feliz, the Peruvian financial solutions for workers in the public sector, placed securitized bonds for $3 millions.

💰 Venture funds 

🌎 Mundi Ventures, the Madrid-based VC firm, raised $27 millions from the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development (AECID) for its allocation in LatAm insurtech startups. 

☯️ Exits

🤝 M&A - Fintech

🇦🇷 Despegar, the Argentinean travel agency, announced the acquisition of Koin, the Brazilian digital payments app. The initiative aims to capitalize on the digital payment and anti-fraud technology developed by Koin. No further details were disclosed.

🚀 Product Launches & Partnerships

💻 Fintech 

🌎 PagBrasil, the Brazilian payment solutions platform, Wipay, and Paybyrd, the payment solutions platforms, announced a partnership to launch a pilot test of the Pix payment system in Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands. This service will be for Brazilian tourists in Europe.

🇵🇪 ProntoPaga, the Chilean payment collection and disbursement service platform, announced the launch of an instant payment solution in Peru, to  cut down payment processing times from up to 48 hours to nearly instant. 

🇻🇪 Cashea, the Venezuela BNPL app, announced a partnership with Los Tres Elefantes, the Venezuela appliance store to introduce credit services at the store, allowing customers to buy appliances on credit without commissions or interes.

🇨🇴 Nequi, the Colombian financial services app, and Bold, the Colombian digital platform designed for financial services, announced a partnership to expand their offerings to Venezuelan migrants in Colombia by providing easy access to savings accounts. 

🇲🇽 Finvero, the Mexican digital lending platform, announced it has improved its credit evaluation process by integrating AI, making assessments 30% more precise. This supports the BNPL schemes, speeding up the evaluation process.

🇧🇷 Vivo, the Brazilian telecommunications company, announced the launch of two credit products in Brazil: “Parcela Pix” and “Antecipação do Saque Aniversário do FGTS”. 

🇨🇱 Btrust, the Chilean SaaS company that provides supply chain finance solutions, announced the launch of "Merlyn," an AI-powered platform designed to prevent invoice fraud within companies, alerting businesses about unusual activities.

🌎 Hapi, the Peruvian stock trading app, announced the launch of a mobile app to give access to the US stock market for LatAm investors. The company offers a platform that allows users to learn, buy, and sell shares with minimal investment requirements and no brokerage commissions.

🇧🇷 CAF, the Brazilian digital identity specialist, announced the launch of a new biometric solution designed to combat account takeover attacks in Brazil. This includes advanced MFA, high-precision biometric verification, and liveness technology to ensure user authenticity. 

🏦 Financial Services & Banking

🇲🇽 BBVA México, the financial institution, and OXXO, the Mexican convenience store chain,  announced the rollout of contactless payment technology across 22,000 OXXO stores nationwide. This initiative involves the installation of over 45,000 devices to support NFC technology. 

📜 Policy

🇵🇪 The Central Bank of Peru selected Bitel, the telecom company that has a financial segment with BiPay, to start the solar digital (central bank digital currency, CBCD) pilot. 

🇦🇷 The Central Bank of Argentina has implemented QR interoperability, letting people pay from any bank or fintech app using the same code reader. 

🇲🇽 The Mexican Banks Association released a proposal, named RedM, to create a unique point of contact institution to regulate  the participants of the card payments ecosystem. Meanwhile, the Fintech Mexico Association has signaled that the proposal would create a lack of equality among the players, giving more weight to big institutions and organizations. 

🇧🇷 Entrepay, the Brazilian payment solutions company, received authorization from the Central Bank to operate as a payment institution. 

📰 Other News 

🇲🇽 Juan Francisco Fernandez was named President of the Board of Directors of the Mexican Association of Popular Financial Companies (Amsofipo).

🌎 The International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) of the USA, announced the proposal for a $30 million fund focused on accelerating investment in LatAm.

🌎 Outlier Ventures, the London-based Venture Capital company, and Morgan Creek Digital, the US-based hedge fund, announced an accelerator program in LatAm. The program focuses on blockchain-based fintech startups. Support will be offered in English, Spanish and Portuguese during the 12-week virtual program, which begins in September.

📚 Deeper Reads

Post acquisition permanence and transformation

CrowdStrike’s rivals stand to benefit from its update fail debacle

Blockchain may help whistleblowers of the future

Goldman Sachs' top stock analyst says AI is a bubble that will burst (ES)

Split in the crypto world: bitcoin market leaves ABcripto (PO)

📣 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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