Hola amig@s fintech,
The World Cup knockout stage is brutal. One bad half and you're out, no second chances. Some of this week's picks have that same edge to them. Nearly 90% of companies have bet on AI, and only a handful are actually seeing it pay off. Two-thirds of Latin America's venture exits come from acquisitions, not the IPOs everyone loves to chase. Most of the fintechs racing to stack payments, credit, and data onto one platform won't make it past this round. Execution under pressure —just like in a soccer match— seems to be the key to making it to the next one.
Enjoy the read.
~Vivi
🟨Editor’s Picks
Fintechs are becoming data companies first, banks second
In this episode of El Arte de Invertir, Javier Morodo and Andrés Olea argue that fintechs like Robinhood, Nubank, Mercado Pago, Coinbase, and GBM are converging on the same playbook: stacking payments, credit, investing, and data onto a single platform rather than competing on any one product alone. They use Visa and Mastercard's grip on global payment rails and Robinhood's GameStop moment as case studies for how distribution and data, not infrastructure alone, decide who wins. Their bet is that the fintechs treating data as a core asset, not a byproduct, are the ones positioned to become the next generation's major financial institutions, in LatAm and globally.
Strategic acquisitions make up two-thirds of Latin America's venture exits
In an essay written after a three-week tour of Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Mexico City, Capria Ventures' Susana Garcia-Robles argues Latin America should stop grading its venture ecosystem against Silicon Valley's IPO scoreboard. Strategic acquisitions account for around 67% of the region's VC-backed exits, she notes, while the US produces roughly 55 venture-backed IPOs a year to Latin America's fewer than five. Her pitch for a new scorecard: durable value, capital returned to investors, founders who build again after an exit, and "camel" companies built to survive volatility rather than chase unicorn status.
Payments, remittances and crypto adoption in LatAm
In this interview with Hi Perspectives, Sandra Daza, senior director of AI and cloud architecture at Oracle, argues execution separates AI winners from the rest: while close to 90% of companies are investing in the technology, only 5% to 10% see a measurable impact on their bottom line. She points to strategy, governance, technology, process, and cultural change moving together as the real differentiator, plus clear rules on which decisions AI should never make and guardrails against unsanctioned "shadow AI." She also argues Latin America's talent pool, adoption speed, and low capital barriers put the region in position to become a genuine AI hub.
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🟨 This Week’s Key Moves
| Fundraising
🇧🇷 Zeom, a global account and investment platform founded by Brazilian entrepreneurs in London, raised $2.7 million pre-seed round led by Fabric Ventures, with Plug and Play and Tritemius also participating. It offers a global account with instant Pix conversion, international investment access, and a card accepted in 190+ countries.
| Products & Partnerships
🇲🇽 BBVA México launched Crédito Simple Digital Pyme, an end-to-end automated financing platform that lets SMEs secure loans from $2,850 to $800,000, with customized fixed rates, cutting the traditional two-week branch process to a maximum of 10 days.
🇨🇴 Kapital, the Mexican fintech operating in Colombia, is scheduled to launch an enterprise credit card in the country during the second half of 2026, part of a push to streamline corporate expense management and open up financing for local SMEs.
🇵🇪 Yape expanded its cross-border services with direct remittances from Peru to Yape Bolivia, its sister app with more than 4 million users, projecting around 4,000 monthly transfers in the first year.
| Policy
🇵🇪 Peru's Superintendency of Banking, Insurance, and AFP (SBS) announced that its Open Finance framework will start with mandatory participation from the country's four largest banks, ahead of general regulation expected in early 2027 and the first data exchanges projected for 2028.
🇲🇽 Banco Plata is awaiting regulatory approval from Mexico's National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) to launch its own brokerage firm, aiming to start operations by December 2026.
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🟨 On our Radar
| Industry
Revolut disclosed the hiring playbook behind its growth: more than 1 million applications reviewed last year for roughly 1,000 roles, an acceptance rate near 0.1%. The company argues that small teams of exceptional people outperform large teams of average ones, and has replaced senior hires with hungrier junior talent as it scaled from 100 employees in 2017 to over 12,000 today. The bet is that talent density, not headcount, is what lets a fintech keep moving at this speed.
AliExpress is pushing to bring more Mexican manufacturers and resellers onto its platform, with technology among its top target categories. New investment in charter flights, local warehouses, and Spanish-language support has already cut delivery times to five to eight days in major cities, closing the gap with domestic marketplaces. For local sellers, it is a lower-cost entry point into e-commerce than building independent logistics from scratch. For AliExpress, it is a bet that local supply can outcompete cross-border shipping on speed.
| People
🇲🇽 Wonderful, the enterprise AI platform backed by $300 million in total funding, named Phil Sebok, Salesforce México's former country director, as general manager of its new Mexico operation, as the company looks to close the gap between AI pilots and real deployments in banking, energy, and manufacturing.
TWIF Latin America editorial team
Elena, Head of New Technologies at Afirme Financial Group
Carlos, ESG Analyst at CFECapital
Editor-in-Chief: Vivi, Strategic Communications and Public Affairs Advisor
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