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LatAm fintech had its best quarter in over a year. Funding jumped from $575 million to $1.05 billion in Q2. Zoom out to the past twelve months, and the concentration is stark: Mexico and Brazil have claimed nine of the region's ten biggest VC deals, with Mexico alone landing six. This week's single biggest check, Kesh's $100 million raise, landed in Brazil too. The money is moving faster. It's also moving to fewer places.
Enjoy the read.
~Vivi
The Rundown
🚀 Product Launches
🇲🇽 Nu started operations as a full banking institution in Mexico on August 6, less than a month after receiving CNBV approval. Mexico is now Nu's first fully licensed banking market outside Brazil with roughly $7 billion in assets, 15 million clients, and an initial capital injection of $1.1 billion.
🇨🇴 Nequi deployed generative AI and machine learning in partnership with Amazon Web Services, automating 80% of customer service interactions and reaching 98% response coverage without wait times. The models, trained on a decade of platform behavioral data, also let Nequi multiply its credit portfolio tenfold while cutting delinquency by 75%.
🌎 Belvo, the Open Finance data and payments platform, launched Belvo MCP (Model Context Protocol), a new infrastructure layer designed to connect AI agents securely to its Open Finance platform across Latin America.
🇨🇴 Littio, the multi-currency wallet, introduced peer-to-peer transfers of USDC and EURC stablecoins via WhatsApp through its virtual assistant Selenio, letting registered users in Colombia send up to 1,000 units per transfer using just a phone number.
💸 Fundraises
🇧🇷 Kesh, the Brazilian salary-advance fintech, raised $100 million in a combined equity and FIDC round led by Grupo Leste, to scale a model that returns 100% of the interest it charges as cashback redeemable across more than 150 merchants.
🇧🇷 FAZ Cred, the Brazilian private payroll-lending fintech, raised $15.7 million in 60 days through its FAZ Cred Mais Trabalhador FIDC, tripling the company's total loan volume.
🇲🇽 Rintin, the Mexican B2B marketplace connecting small retailers with manufacturers and wholesalers, raised $6.2 million in a round led by Cometa to expand its embedded credit and logistics offering.
🇺🇾 hiSofi, the Uruguayan AI-powered debt collection platform, raised $1 million led by SaaSholic to build an AI and data-science hub after managing more than 44 million debts and recovering $61 million for clients across six Latin American countries.
🏛️ Policy & Regulation
🇨🇱 Mercado Pago is awaiting authorization from the Financial Market Commission (CMF) to launch its credit card, aiming to round out an ecosystem that already spans more than 5 million users and 250,000 merchants using its payment terminals.
🗂️ Other News
🇧🇷 Pix, Brazil's instant payment system, continues to gain ground in the country's hospitality sector, reaching 20.5% of in-person payments at bars and restaurants, up from 16.5% in 2024, though credit cards still lead at 41.5%.
Editor’s Picks
That’s all for now. We will see you back here next week!
