Hola amig@s fintech,

February starts, and with it the carnival season across Latin America. One of its early milestones is La Fiesta de la Candelaria, celebrated on February 2 in parts of Peru and Mexico. This week's image comes from Puno, Peru, where costumes embody cultural identity and the blend of Andean cosmology and Christianity.

As the region moves into this season of color and celebration, fintech continues to shift toward execution and scale. This week’s edition looks at how infrastructure, regulation, and institutional readiness are shaping the next phase of growth across payments, banking, and financial services.

🩵Enjoy it! We’ll see you back here next week.

~Vivi

Feedback?  Reach out to us anytime! This week it’s Elena on read, post, and podcast of the week, funding, exists, other news and deeper reads, Carlos on policy, and product launches and partnerships, and Vivi on editing.

| TWIF Community 

🗓️ Events

Mexico Fintech Week 2026

Fintech’s Best Kept Secrets 🤫

In Ancient Greece, the Eleusinian Mysteries were sacred truths reserved only for the initiated. They were guarded by Harpocrates, the deity of silence. If you weren’t in the room, you  remained in the dark.This February, we’re bringing that same "inner circle" energy to Mexico Fintech Week 2026.

The Real Deal: In Fintech, the most valuable insights aren't found in press releases. They’re shared in closed-door meetings, over drinks, or in late-night strategy sessions. That is the spirit of our events: less corporate fluff, more "real talk" about the scars earned while scaling in LATAM.

Why join? Because we’re done with surface-level panels. We’re here for the GOAT (Greatest Of All Talks).

Where the truth happens:

• Mon, Feb 23 – Mexico Expansion Series @ Stripe HQ: The unfiltered reality of scaling into Mexico (scars included).
• Tue, Feb 24 – VC & Fintech Meetup @ TWIF House: The invite-only room where capital and builders speak the same language.
• Plus a curated agenda that only registered attendees will access in full. Gain the edge of being where the real conversations happen before the doors close.

Don’t stay outside the room. Come for the answers that aren't being shared anywhere else and discover what’s truly happening behind the scenes of the ecosystem. Consider this your invitation to leave the darkness behind.

See you inside.

🗣️ Channels

|  Read of the Week 

Finastra’s white paper “Instant Payments and Beyond” by Finastra, argues that instant payments are quickly becoming table stakes, driven by customer expectations for speed and 24/7 availability. It points to a rapid expansion in scale, with instant payments transaction value estimated at $60 trillion globally in 2025 and projected to exceed $129 trillion by 2030, and instant payment transactions expected to reach 22% of global payment volumes in 2028 (up from 16% in 2023).

The report also highlights a readiness gap, citing research that only 25% of banks can receive instant payments and only 5% show high business and technology readiness. It lays out what bank CIOs need to prioritize next: modernizing payment architectures with APIs and microservices, designing for always-on resilience and interoperability (including ISO 20022), and strengthening fraud prevention, liquidity, and risk management as real-time and cross-border flows expand. 

| Post of the Week 

| Podcast of the Week 🎙️

| Venture Financing 

💰 Equity

🇧🇷 PicPay, the Brazilian digital wallet and financial services platform, raised $434 million through an IPO in the U.S. to strengthen its capital base to accelerate growth in digital payments, credit, and financial services across Brazil and LatAm.

🇧🇷 Alfred, the  Brazilian embedded credit and financial infrastructure provider for SMEs, raised $15 million in a Series A round to expand API-based credit solutions across Latin America.

🇧🇷 Lerian, the Brazilian open-source core banking platform, raised $6 million in a venture round to expand its modular banking infrastructure for financial institutions.

🇧🇷 Anbetec, the Brazilian provider of payment and digital banking solutions, raised $5.8 million to support the development of financial infrastructure for enterprises and financial institutions.

| Venture funds 

🌎 FinDev Canada, Canada’s development finance institution, committed $15 million to the Lendable MSME Fintech Credit Fund II, a seven-year debt fund targeting $250 million and focused on fintech lenders across LatAm, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

| Exits 

🤝 M&A - Fintech

🇺🇸 Telos Labs, a U.S.-based technology and product development company focused on AI-enabled digital solutions, acquired Flourish Fi, a behavioral loyalty and financial engagement platform, to expand its offerings for banks and financial institutions in the U.S. and Latin America.

🏦 M&A - Banks, Insurers & Incumbents

🇨🇴 Tuhabi, the Colombian proptech platform focused on used-home transactions, acquired Pulppo, a real estate commercial platform supporting agents and brokerages, to expand its footprint in Mexico’s resale housing market. 

| Product Launches & Partnerships 

💻 Fintech

​​🇲🇽 Revolut initiated full banking operations in Mexico with an initial capital injection of $100 million, aiming to reach two million customers by the end of 2026 through its local banking license and deposit products.

🇨🇴 Amway, the global direct selling company, partnered with dLocal, the Uruguay-based payments platform, to enable local payment processing in Colombia, supporting transactions in local currency via cards, PSE bank transfers, and Efecty cash vouchers as part of a broader Latin America rollout.

🇨🇴 Grupo Gelsa, the Colombian payments and gaming operator, launched TodoPay, a digital wallet integrated into its Paga Todo ecosystem, consolidating services including mobile top-ups, regulated gaming, sports betting, and utility payments into a single platform.

🇲🇽 Clip, the Mexican payments company, launched Tap to Pay on Android devices, enabling merchants to accept contactless payments via NFC directly on smartphones without the need for proprietary POS hardware.

🇧🇷 Stark Bank, the Brazilian digital bank for enterprises, partnered with Mercado Bitcoin to integrate digital asset procurement into its corporate banking platform, allowing institutional clients to access cryptocurrency markets within a regulated B2B environment.

🇺🇸 Pana, a U.S.-based cross-border payments platform, scaled its user base to 200,000 by leveraging blockchain infrastructure from Alchemy, using optimized node providers and Layer 2 solutions to reduce transaction costs and infrastructure instability.

🇧🇷 Belvo, the Latin American open finance infrastructure provider, partnered with Inter to use Open Finance data as core infrastructure for large-scale credit underwriting, improving data quality and lending efficiency in Brazil.

🇨🇴 Terrenta, the Colombian real estate crowdfunding platform, launched operations after receiving authorization from the Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia, allowing retail investors to participate in structured construction projects with a minimum investment of COP $100,000.

🇨🇴 Abroad, the cross-border payments platform, integrated with Colombia's instant payment system Bre-B, enabling real-time conversion of USDC stablecoins into local currency across the interoperable payments network.

🏦 Financial Services & Banking 

🇲🇽 BBVA México, in collaboration with the payment platform Conekta, launched Pago Directo, an e-commerce payment solution that allows users to complete transactions directly within the bank’s mobile app, without sharing card details with merchants.

🇲🇽 Tapi and Naturgy Mexico implemented digital payment infrastructure for utility services, enabling real-time transactions and expanding digital payment options for energy customers in Mexico.

| Policy

🇺🇸 Nubank, the Brazil-founded digital banking group, received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a de novo national bank, Nubank, N.A., allowing it to offer deposit accounts, lending, and digital asset custody under a U.S. federal regulatory framework.

🇲🇽 The Mexican Banking Association (ABM) is negotiating with the CNBV and Banco de México over a proposal to cap interchange fees at 0.6 percent for credit cards and 0.3 percent for debit cards, with banks advocating for a gradual rollout and a zero-rate category for new merchants to reduce potential impacts on credit issuance and financial inclusion.

🇲🇽 KredFeed, the Mexican supply chain financing platform, obtained authorization to operate as a Sociedad Financiera de Objeto Múltiple (SOFOM ENR), formally bringing its operations under the supervision of CONDUSEF and the CNBV and enabling greater access to institutional funding to support the manufacturing sector.

​​🇧🇷 The Central Bank of Brazil amended Resolution BCB No. 498 to strengthen oversight of Information Technology Service Providers (PSTI) within the National Financial System, introducing flexible capital requirements that allow the regulator to mandate higher liquidity levels based on risk assessments.

🇧🇷 The Central Bank of Brazil enacted Normative Instruction (IN) 701, effective February 2, 2026, requiring financial institutions and digital asset service providers (PSAVs) to obtain independent technical certification covering asset segregation, proof of reserves, and cybersecurity standards for virtual asset intermediation and custody.

| Other News 

🇧🇷 WideLabs, in partnership with NVIDIA, launched Nemotron Personas Brasil, a sovereign AI dataset designed to support the development of localized artificial intelligence models.

🇲🇽 Mexico’s proptech sector saw renewed momentum as used housing consolidated its role as a growth driver, fueled by digital platforms, data-driven valuation tools, and mortgage solutions that are reshaping real estate transactions.

🇦🇷 Amazon reinforced its commitment to Argentina with renewed investment and regional expansion, highlighting the strategic importance of the country within its broader LatAm growth strategy.

🇲🇽 Refurbi, the Colombian circular economy startup focused on refurbished electronics, raised capital to expand into the Mexican market.

🇧🇷 Mercado Libre, began operational steps to enter Brazil’s pharmacy retail market through a 1P model, while engaging regulators to enable future marketplace sales of medicines.

| Deeper Reads  

Crypto payments adoption spearheaded by large businesses, PayPal survey finds

A new survey reported by The Block shows that nearly 4 in 10 merchants already accept cryptocurrency at checkout and about 85 percent of payment decision-makers expect crypto payments to become commonplace within five years. Adoption is strongest among larger enterprises, with roughly half of companies with more than $500 million in annual revenue accepting crypto, and many surveyed merchants report increased crypto sales and frequent customer inquiries about paying with digital assets. 

Top 10: Cross-Border Payment Solutions

FinTech Magazine’s Top 10 list highlights the providers shaping cross-border payments in 2026, from legacy players anchoring global settlement to newer innovators driving real-time liquidity and transparency. The piece outlines how incumbents like Western Union and SWIFT still support vast global flows, while companies such as Wise, Payoneer, dLocal, and Thunes push fee transparency, market access, and integrated rails that move capital more efficiently across borders. 

Mastercard’s commerce media boss on what happens when AI agents do the buying

The piece explores the emerging reality of agentic commerce, where AI agents autonomously complete shopping tasks and payments on behalf of consumers, and Mastercard’s efforts to build the standards, tokenization frameworks, and secure rails that make these transactions viable, transparent, and trustworthy at scale. It highlights the challenges around intent verification, fraud systems adapting to machine behavior, and questions of liability and consumer control as AI assistants move beyond recommendations into actual purchasing.

📣 LatAm fintech enthusiasts looking for a new role, check out https://jobs.thisweekinfintech.com

Made in LatAm with 🩵by 

Elena, Deputy Director of New Technologies at Afirme Financial Group

Carlos, ESG Analyst at CFECapital

Vivi, Communication expert and Principal at Areté Consulting

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