No (disclosed) new fintech funding during this week. 😯

Hello to all of you!

Thank you to our fintech friends that came out to join us at Casa Prunes for our Summer Social in Mexico City last week. We had 375+ RSVPs and had a special evening connecting our local & global community. A special thank you to our sponsors: Palenca & Visa. 

Palenca is an income and employment verification API. They make it easy for consumers to share employment information to financial institutions, currently operating in Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Brazil.

We're also excited to share that our Fintech Treks are back 🚀

This year, from October 18th to 20th, we'll be taking a group of 30-50 fintech enthusiasts to fully immerse in the Mexico City fintech ecosystem. We'll be working with our partner Quona to bring together founders, investors, executives, and fintech leaders in LatAm's fintech capital.

👉 Interested in joining? Let us know in our Attendee Application Form here.

👉 ¿Interesado en participar? Háganos saber en nuestra solicitud aquí.

📖 Lastly, we're excited to announce the publication of our whitepaper Evaluating The Global State of Fintech, coauthored with the AWS FinTech team.

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

💛 Until next weekend. Nos vemos la siguiente semana. Até a próxima! - Lorena

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📣 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!

📊 Stat and read of the Week

Global fintech funding dropped by nearly half to US$7.8 billion, the lowest since 2017, per CBInsights' State of Fintech Q2'23 Report. In contrast, Latam fintechs raised US$500 million in Q1'23, marking a 150% surge from the previous quarter, with around 69 agreements.

🎙️Podcast of the Week

💸 Venture Financing

💸 Equity

🇨🇱 Neat Pagos, the Chilean company offering credit card payments for rent, bills, and student loans, closed a funding round with Minga Ventures. The capital, which has not been disclosed, aims to accelerate the company's growth, with the addition of Francesca Finaldi, formerly of Fintual, to their team. 

☯️ Exits

🤝 M&A - Fintech

🇨🇱 Latam Trade Capital (LTC) announced the acquisition of Fivana, the Chilean financial solutions platform for SMEs, to expand its digital factoring services and to offer financing access to SMEs in the region. No further details of the transaction were disclosed.

🚀 Product Launches & Partnerships

💻 Fintech 

🇲🇽 PrestaShop, the eCommerce solution, announced its payment solution PrestaShop Checkout in Mexico through its partnership with Paypal. The platform offers over three payment methods all integrated into one module to optimize the online shopping experience.

🇦🇷 Prex, the Uruguay digital banking platform, and Allaria, the Argentinean asset manager,  announced a partnership to launch Cuenta Remunerada in Argentina, a 100% free and secure solution that allows users to earn daily yields on their savings.

🇨🇱 Tenpo, the Chilean paytech platform, launched its credit card, becoming one of the largest digital accounts in the country with over 2.2 million customers. The card can be managed fully through the app, competing directly with traditional banks.

🌎 Incode, the US-based identity verification and authentication platform, and Finnovating, the European fintech collaboration platform, announced a partnership to promote the adoption of identity verification technology within their network of associated companies, focusing initially on the Mexican and Colombian markets. 

🌎 Jeeves, the US-based global financial operating system for businesses, launched cross-border payments and local prepaid cards in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, enabling fast fund transfers within 24 hours.

🌎 VIIO, the Colombian Web 3 platform, launched an app for converting and saving digital dollars, providing a solution to exchange rate risks. The platform is backed by crypto and financial ecosystem platforms, ensuring a $250 million insurance coverage for users' digital assets.

🌎 Rappi, the Colombian delivery app in Latam, and R2, the Mexican embedded lending platform, announced it will offer loans to restaurants in Mexico and Colombia to help them expand and improve their businesses. They aim to target $60 million in loans and may expand this service to other countries in the future. 

🏦 Financial Services & Banking

🇩🇴 Mastercard and Qik, the DR neobank, announced a partnership to provide a digital banking experience. Both companies are committed to enhancing financial inclusion and empowering users with innovative, secure, and convenient payment solutions.

🇸🇻 Mastercard and Ditobanx, the Salvadorian credit and Bitcoin platform, announced a partnership to launch the region's first crypto Mastercard debit card and digital wallet. The card allows users to send and receive funds globally and it operates with the stablecoin USDC.

📜 Policy

🇨🇴 MercadoPago, the subsidiary of MercadoLibre, was authorized by the Colombian financial regulatory agency to operate as a financing company in the country. 

🇧🇷 Evertec, the Puerto Rico-based electronic payment processing company, obtained a payment institution license from the Brazilian Central Bank. Evertec will be able to operate as an e-money issuer and post-paid payment instrument.

📰 Other News 

🇲🇽 Mercado Pago announced the issuance of 150,000 credit cards in just 90 days in Mexico, with an average credit  $480. Limits will increase based on usage analysis and payment behavior.

🇨🇴 Licify, the Colombia-based marketplace of supply chain for real estate, raised $3.4 million in its seed round, led by Brick & Mortar Ventures and Accion Venture Lab. Dash Fund, G2 Momentum Capital and the Columbia University venture capital fund also took part in the capital injection.

🇸🇻 Startupbootcamp announced an acceleration program in El Salvador, accompanied by a $3.5 million investment fund to boost startups in fintech, bitcoin, Web3.0, among others.

🇧🇷 Amazon announced the launch of a credit card with cashback in Brazil, offering up to 3% cashback on Amazon purchases and up to 2% cashback on other establishments. The card is not turning Amazon into a bank, as it is administered by Bradesco and has a Mastercard logo. 

🌎 Nubank announced that it reached 85 million customers in Latam. Becoming the fourth largest bank in Brazil with 80 million customers, surpassing Banco do Brasil. 

📚 Deeper Reads

Remittances are becoming less profitable

Why Are More Founders Leaving Startups to Become Venture Capital Investors?

Blockchain in the financial sector

The role of Open Finance for financial inclusion in Latin America (PO)

The age of centaurs: is it the end of unicorn rule? (ES)

The power of artificial intelligence in Fintech (ES)

Artificial intelligence will steal more jobs from women than from men (ES)

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

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