$182.29 million in fintech funding (equity and debt)

Hola amig@s fintech,

🤱🏻Happy Mother’s Day to all of those who have been celebrating this week!

For our readers in Brazil 🇧🇷… Join TWIF and Oscilar for the first RiskCon Dinner in São Paulo, which will take place on Tuesday, May 14. Get to know new people and network with top leaders in fintech, while you dive into discussions on risk management, fraud prevention, and more. Don't miss out and RSVP now.

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

📺 Sponsored Content

Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here or reach out to latam@thisweekinfintech.com. Want to sponsor an event with the TWIF LatAm community?  Check out the FAQ here, send us your info via this form or reach out to latam@thisweekinfintech.com

📊 Stat of the Week

Banking and financial inclusion in LatAm is being promoted by two payment methods for in-person purchases:

1) Digital wallets, mainly in Argentina (23%), Colombia (10%), Panama (9%) and Peru (16%), and

2) Debit cards, mainly in Chile (81%), Dominican Republic (56%), Ecuador (39%) and Guatemala (55%) (Source).

📖  Read of the Week

The Global Payments Report 2024 by Worldpay, highlights the growing diversity and impact of consumer decisions on the payments landscape. In 2023, cash and credit cards shared the lead in point-of-sale transactions, while digital wallets emerged as the fastest-growing payment method, projecting a significant increase by 2027.

LatAm stood out with the highest percentage of A2A payments penetration globally, driven by the success of Pix, Brazil's instant payment system.

🦉 Post of the Week

 🎙️ Podcast of the Week

💸 Venture Financing

💸 Equity

🇨🇱 Fintoc, the Chilean pay-by-bank company, raised $7 millions in a Series A round led by Propel VC, to consolidate its operations in Mexico and Chile. 

🇧🇷 Payssego, the Brazilian salary advancements through WhatsApp startup, raised $290,000 in a Pre-Seed round led by angel investors. 

💵 Debt 

🇲🇽 Plata, the Mexican credit card lender, secured a $100 million credit facility from Fasanara Capital Ltd. 

🇧🇷 Jeeves, the Mexico-based B2B credit company, secured a $75 million credit from Community Investment Management (CIM) for its expansion in Brazil.

☯️ Exits

🤝 M&A - Fintech

🇧🇷 Celcoin, the Brazilian financial infrastructure company, announced the acquisition of Regulatório Mais (Reg+), the Brazilian regulatory tech company. Celcoin aims to enhance its capabilities in payments, banking, and credit solutions, for financial institutions and fintechs, catering to both regulated and unregulated entities. No further details were disclosed. 

🇧🇷 BS2, the Brazilian digital bank for businesses, announced an investment in Bloxs, the Brazilian digital ecosystem. The investment strengthens Bloxs' position for its upcoming Series A round, aiding its Capital Market As a Service (CMaaS) platform development. No further details were disclosed. 

🏦 M&A - Bank and FinServ

🇲🇽 Citigroup announced the acquisition of a stake in Cicada, the US-based  bond trading platform, to enhance liquidity provision in the market. Cicada specializes in trading Mexican government fixed-income securities to increase electronic trading efficiency in the Mexican fixed-income market. No further details were disclosed. 

🏦 Exits - Bank and FinServ

🇵🇪 Scotiabank Peru announced the sale of the financial firm Crediscotia, Scotibank’s financial subsidiary specializing in consumer loans and microenterprise services, to Spain's Banco Santander. The acquisition aims to complement Santander's global digital consumer banking model while expanding its product offerings in Peru. No further details were disclosed. 

🚀 Product Launches & Partnerships

💻 Fintech 

🇲🇽 Openpay, the Mexican payment platform by BBVA, and Kueski Pay, announced a partnership to introduce the BNPL solution, enhancing online shopping experience. The collaboration aims to boost e-commerce accessibility for millions of Mexicans, integrating various payment options.

🇦🇷 Clara, the Mexican spending management platform, announced its expansion to Argentina to tap into the country’s highly skilled workforce to drive growth and innovation. The company operates in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia.

🌎 Bitso, the Mexican crypto exchange, announced the launch of its Web3 Wallet, enabling users to interact with decentralized projects and cryptocurrencies. This move aims to offer users more control over their digital assets and access to decentralized applications.

🇨🇴 Bold, the Colombian financial payment tool, announced its new deposit account with a Mastercard business debit card, offering businesses of all sizes instant access to their sales revenue and efficient financial management.

🌎 Tapi, the Argentinian payment solutions platform, and Xaggo, the US-based bill payment platform, announced a partnership to improve cross-border payments between the US and LatAm, utilizing their combined technological strengths to enhance financial connectivity and streamline transactions.

🇲🇽 Briq.mx, the Mexican real estate crowdfunding platform, and Bitso, the Mexican crypto exchange, announced a partnership to integrate advanced payment technology into its operations. Briq.mx's institutional clients and users will conduct transactions in pesos through a unified account managed via an API.

🇧🇷 Dock, the Brazilian B2B technology company for payments and banking, announced the launch of a tool in partnership with FICO to reduce declined credit card transactions in Brazil. By using AI and machine learning, this solution assesses user profiles in real-time, enabling flexible limit provision even during declined transactions. 

🇨🇴 Littio, the Colombian financial systems for emerging economies, announced the launch of a US bank account for Colombians, enabling swift cross-border transactions and financial management through their app. With features like checking accounts and routing numbers, users can handle dollar transactions and convert funds to Colombian pesos instantly. 

🌎 Wallib, the Colombian platform using Bitcoin for credit transactions, announced the launch of a Visa debit card allowing payments with Bitcoin, dollars, and Colombian pesos, accompanied by a 2% Bitcoin cashback benefit. 

🏦 Financial Services & Banking

🇲🇽 Santander Mexico  announced the adoption of ChatGPT as a customer service assistant, enhancing user experience with personalized responses and empathetic interactions. 

📜 Policy

🇧🇷 Bloxs Capital Partners, the Brazilian investment banking division of Bloxs Group, received authorization from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Brazil to operate as coordinator of public offerings. 

📰 Other News 

🇧🇷 Túlio Oliveira, was named Head for Digital Retail at Bradesco.

🌎 Nubank announced that it surpassed 100 million customers in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, becoming the first digital banking platform to reach this milestone outside of Asia. Additionally, it presented its 2023 financial results, with more than $1 billion in net profits and more than $8 billion in revenue.

🇲🇽 The Mexican Central Bank announced that businesses that integrate digital payments through QR code (CoDi) or cell phone number (Dimo) into their payment methods have an average savings of $5,000 per year by not paying commissions.

🇲🇽 Mercado Libre announced the opening of the first distribution center in the US, focused on making faster deliveries in Mexico.

🇲🇽 Microsoft announced the opening of its first cloud region in Mexico, offering customers low-latency data transfers, scalable technical support to meet high demands for computing resources, and uninterrupted data processing.

🇲🇽 Buk, the Chilean technological platform in human capital management in Mexico, announced a partnership with Cousera and Udemy, online learning platforms, to enhance the content on its platform through a digital Course Store, where companies will be able to contract content licenses for their employees.

📚 Deeper Reads

What to expect in VC for 2024

Six benefits of hiring neurodivergent talent for fintech companies and startups

AI Strategies for Fintech Firms: Data Scientist Sumedha Rai Explains How to Power Up

The LATAM fintech revolution has arrived in the US

Fintech companies are solving problems of a segment that was not being satisfied (ES)

The bank of the future understands the client's situation, it is the true financial coach (ES) 

📣 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

👍👎 Did you like this edition of TWIF LatAm?  Take a 1-minute anonymous survey here.

Come meet us in person at www.thisweekinfintech.com/events. You can also join our global community on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.