$49.7 million in fintech funding (equity and debt)

Hola amig@s fintech,

We hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving. From the TWIF Latam team, we would like to give a big shoutout to our amazing readers and subscribers — you're the reason TWIF is thriving. 

Now, let's dive into the latest in Latam fintech news. And remember that we always appreciate  your support by sharing and subscribing.  

💛 Until next weekend. Até a próxima!

• Lorena

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📊 Stat of the Week

In Latam, the primary Alternative Payment Methods include transfer accounts, with rapid growth seen in instant methods like Pix in Brazil, PSE in Colombia, and Spei in Mexico. These methods make up 17% of all online transactions. Digital wallets come next, holding a 10% share, followed by cash options like bolete in Brazil and OXXO in Mexico, which represent an 8% share. (Source)

📖  Read of the Week

Consumers perceive cryptocurrencies as an asset, not as a payment method, 14% of the banked population has purchased some type of crypto; 7% have made the decision to bet on it and 39% are considering it. In Latin America the phenomenon is more advanced than in Europe, with 86% of people using or knowing about crypto, according to the XII Payment Methods Report from Minsait Payments.

🎙️Podcast of the Week

💸 Venture Financing

💸 Equity

🇧🇷 Logcomex, the Brazilian financial services and logistics startup, raised $32.5 million led by Riverwood Capital and with the participation of Endeavor Catalyst, Igah Ventures, Alexia Ventures, and Caravela Capital.

🇨🇴 GoPass, the Colombian payments platform for mobility, raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Kaszek.

🇧🇷 Bitgov, the Brazilian startup for government suppliers, raised $1.66 million from Bertha Capital. No further details were disclosed. 

🇧🇷 Astride, the Brazilian and US-based accounting startup, raised $600,000 in a Pre-seed round with the participation of angel investors. No further details were disclosed.

💰 Venture funds 

🌎 Riverwood Capital, the California-based growth-stage investor firm, closed a $1.8 billion fund and plans to use it mostly in new investments in Latam and North America and also expand to other regions. It has recently backed some companies such as SpyCloud, Hyperproof, One Model, and Logcomex.

🚀 Product Launches & Partnerships

💻 Fintech 

🇧🇷 Noh, the Brazilian multipayer joint social wallet, announced a new feature called "separate balances," offering users the ability to manage two individual balances within their digital wallet and shared card service.

🇨🇴 Mesfix, the Colombian crowd-factoring platform, announced an investment model called Mesfix by Plataform, which includes features that allow businesses to choose the investment amount, return period, and diversify risks.

🇧🇷 SomaPay, the Brazilian payroll automation platform, and Fortes Tecnologia, the Brazilian software company, joined forces to form a joint venture named FortesPay, which announced a payroll management solution for Brazil. The platform streamlines payroll processes for accountants and companies, offering encrypted data, API-driven automation, and a secure environment. 

🇧🇷 Patex, the Brazilian crypto asset ecosystem, announced the launch of a $100 million platform in Brazil, led by Ricardo Da Ros, the executive who spearheaded the initial teams at Binance, Ripio, and Crypto.com in the country. 

🏦 Financial Services & Banking

🇧🇷 QualiSign, the Brazilian digital transformation services company, announced Sign & Pay, a new service on its digital transformation platform. The service enables automatic linkage between contract formalization and payment transactions, streamlining financial transfers from the debtor's account to the creditor's, bypassing intermediaries.

🇵🇪 Visa and Corporación E. Wong, the Peruvian retail and commercial company, announced the launch of Tarjeta W, a new digital wallet for the Peruvian market. The wallet offers a way for users to make both online and in-person purchases nationally and internationally, leveraging the extensive traffic generated by Wong's operations and shopping centers.

🇦🇷 Visa and Pomelo, the Argentine infrastructure and financial services platform, announced a partnership to streamline the card issuance process in the Peruvian market. This partnership enables any company in the country to offer debit and credit options, accelerating card issuance processes. 

📜 Policy

🇧🇷 The President of the Central Bank of Brazil announced that the institution will release financial “superapps” in 2025. After the release of Pix and the implementation of open finance (OF), the super applications will constitute a new OF stage. They will aggregate information from financial institutions and will let users have all their operations in a single program. 

🇧🇷 The Brazilian Senate’s Committee on Economic Affairs approved the Executive’s bill project 4173/23, which seeks to create a 15% tax for users who own foreign entities’ cryptocurrencies. The bill now needs approval of the Plenary of the Senate, before it is sanctioned by the President. 

🇸🇻 The National Commission of Digital Assets of El Salvador authorized Koibanx, the Argentinian blockchain infrastructure provider, as digital assets services provider. This is the seventh company to receive authorization. 

🇲🇽 The Mexican Central Bank released three new regulations regarding cybersecurity for the Interbank Electronic Payment System (SPEI) and for the Interbank Payment System in Dollars (SPID). One of the most relevant dispositions is the need of all participant entities of SPID to have an information security officer. 

📰 Other News 

🇲🇽 Fintech Mexico, the Mexican association that represents 180 financial technology firms, named Sebastián de Lara as General Director, in succession to Ernesto Calero.

🇧🇷 Toro, a brokerage acquired by Santander in 2021, announced the closure of Mobills Investimentos, two and a half years after acquiring the company, in order to incorporate the Mobills Investimentos service into a single platform.

🇦🇷 German Accelerator, the startup accelerator that supports startups in their expansion, announced its start of operations in Argentina, in order to bring startups closer to the opportunities and characteristics of the region, while promoting the exchange of knowledge.

🇲🇽 Bayer, AWS, 3M, Grupo Modelo and BBVA Mexico created the ROCC alliance (Rethink, Order, Construct and Collaborate) in order to take advantage of the strengths and leadership of each participating company to catalyze the innovative ecosystem in Mexico.

🌎 Ripio, the bitcoin and digital payments company, announced the launch of its Web3 startup acceleration program, with a focus on Latam. 70 projects from 12 different countries were evaluated and 8 startups were selected: Trexx (Brazil), CryptoPagos (Uruguay), Fungi Protocol (Spain), Paydece (Argentina), Latam Wap Dex (Spain), Simple Pago (Argentina), Ultradrop (Uruguay) and Talo Pay (Argentina).

📚 Deeper Reads

In Mexico, fintechs eagerly await the delayed Open Finance regulation

Founders are raising fewer up rounds — here’s what they’re doing instead

Women are the ones who took more than 60% of loans in Colombia

The challenges of payment platforms during El Buen Fin (ES)

Fintech in Latin America, perspectives for 2024 and the future (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

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