Pix rewrites payments history, DolarApp rebrands | TWIF LatAm (03/04)

Hola amig@s fintech,

This Sunday is International Women's Day. Fintech is one of the most dynamic industries in the region, and it is not immune to the broader gender inequalities that shape Latin America. Women face financial, technological, and entrepreneurial barriers that the sector has yet to fully reckon with. The share of women founders, CEOs, and executive leaders remains very small. Understanding the depth of the problem is still a work in progress, and several organizations are actively researching the gaps, building the data, and making the case. And women themselves are not waiting: across the region, fintech networks led by and for women are organizing, creating spaces for visibility, mentorship, and advancement. The industry that is rewiring how money moves in Latin America has the potential to be a real force for change. Let March 8th be a reminder of how much that matters.

Now, to the news.

~Vivi

The Latin America Venture Capital Report 2026 highlights mixed but generally positive sentiment across the region’s startup ecosystem. Survey results show many investors expect to increase capital deployment over the next 12–18 months, while a majority of founders still plan to raise funding within the next year. The report also identifies Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico among the most active venture markets in the region.

The Latin America VC Report 2026 analyzes venture capital activity across Latin America through investment data and ecosystem surveys. The study also introduces several sentiment barometers, including the LatAm VC Confidence Index and the Startuplinks Confidence Index, which measure how investors and founders view fundraising, deal flow, valuations, and exits over the next 6–18 months. The report finds that venture investment reached about $4.1B across 681 rounds in 2025, with capital heavily concentrated in Brazil and Mexico. Fintech captured the largest share of funding, while investors wrote larger checks but backed fewer companies, pointing to a more selective funding environment across the region.

In this episode of Irrevrsible, hosts Jorge Soto and Ricardo Martínez speak with Malinally Herrera, Chief of Staff at Bankaool. Drawing on 16 years at Scotiabank and later roles at Finsus and Metafinanciera, Herrera reflects on the shift from traditional banking to fintech, the operational friction of innovating on legacy systems, and what happens inside a bank trying to compete with neobanks in Mexico’s rapidly evolving financial sector.

🇲🇽 DolarApp, the Mexican app offering dollar-denominated accounts using USDC, raised $70 million in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund and Kaszek, as it prepares to rebrand as ARQ.

🇦🇷 Ualá, the Argentine digital banking platform, raised $195 million in a Series F round led by Allianz X, valuing the company at $3.2 billion. The funding will support expansion across Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia as the company targets profitability by 2027.

🇨🇴 Addi, the Colombian digital lending and buy now pay later, secured $89 million in structured financing from Citi. The funds will help expand financing options for customers and support its growth.

🌍 Alive Ventures, the Latin America-focused venture capital firm, closed a $55 million fund, bringing its assets under management to over $80 million. The fund will back early-stage technology startups across the region, supporting founders from pre-seed through product-market fit with a focus on sectors such as health, financial services, and AI-enabled businesses.

🤝 M&A - Fintech

🇧🇷 Celcoin, the Brazilian financial infrastructure provider, received regulatory approval to acquire Via Capital SCD, a licensed Sociedade de Crédito Direto. The deal expands Celcoin’s credit capabilities and capital base as it continues building its lending infrastructure. The transaction marks the company’s seventh acquisition since 2022.

🏦 M&A - Banks, Insurers & Incumbents

🇲🇽 A group of Mexican banks, including BBVA México, Banorte, Santander México, and Citibanamex, agreed to sell a 68% stake in TransUnion México, the country’s consumer credit bureau, in a deal valued at about $620 million. The transaction transfers majority ownership of the credit reporting company to an investor consortium.

🌎 Prometeo and Fiskil announced a strategic partnership to accelerate open finance in Latin America. The collaboration combines Prometeo’s banking connectivity with Fiskil’s data and consent management technology to help financial institutions and fintechs access standardized financial data and build open finance products.

🌎 dLocal, the Uruguay-founded cross-border payments platform, and Stable Sea announced an integration to support B2B cross-border payments using stablecoins. The collaboration connects Stable Sea’s settlement infrastructure with dLocal’s global payment network.

🌎 Jeeves launched Jeeves Instant Pay, a global payment infrastructure that uses stablecoin rails to enable near-instant cross-border B2B settlements. The company also introduced a corporate card backed by stablecoin treasury balances for Latin American companies with U.S. entities.

🇧🇴 Airtm launched QR code payments in Bolivia,  allowing users to pay local merchants with digital dollar balances from their accounts. The feature connects Airtm wallets with Bolivia’s QR payment infrastructure.

🇲🇽 Moonflow partnered with Puntored to integrate its AI-powered debt collection software with Puntored’s nationwide payment network in Mexico. The integration allows businesses to connect automated collections with real-time payment reconciliation.

​​🇦🇷 GrabrFi introduced a consolidated financial platform in Argentina, enabling users to access U.S.-domiciled bank accounts, hold multi-currency balances in fiat and stablecoins, and use integrated debit cards for domestic and international payments.

🇧🇷 Prudential do Brasil and the fintech RecargaPay announced a strategic partnership to offer digital insurance products through the RecargaPay mobile platform. The initiative allows users to access insurance offerings directly within the app as part of RecargaPay’s financial services ecosystem.

🇧🇷 Brazil’s Central Bank and the National Monetary Council ruled that crypto intermediaries, custodians, and brokers will be treated as financial institutions under Brazilian law. The classification brings virtual asset service providers under the country’s bank secrecy rules and other financial system obligations.

🇧🇷 The Central Bank of Brazil began inspections of more than 200 payment institutions and fintechs amid elevated risks related to money laundering and terrorism financing (PLD/FTP). The regulator also introduced a Conformity Seal to encourage stronger compliance and self-regulation across the financial system.

🇧🇷 Shopee has received regulatory authorization from the Central Bank of Brazil to operate a financial company (sociedade de crédito, financiamento e investimento). The license allows the e-commerce platform to offer credit products directly to consumers and sellers in Brazil.

🇧🇴 Vita Wallet, the Chilean digital wallet and remittance platform, became the first foreign institution authorized to operate with crypto assets in Bolivia under the framework established by Supreme Decree No. 5384.

🔄Leadership changes

🇨🇱 Comisión para el Mercado Financiero (CMF), Chile’s financial markets regulator, named Catherine Tornel as its new President, marking a key leadership transition at the regulator overseeing banking, markets, and fintech policy.

🇧🇷 Neon, the Brazilian digital bank, named Fabiola Marchiori as its new Head of Technology to lead technology strategy and development.

🇲🇽 Kueski, the Mexican BNPL, named Pablo Baragiola as Vice President of Fraud, to its leadership team to drive growth and strategic initiatives.

🇲🇽 Spin (by OXXO), the Mexican digital wallet, named Rodrigo García Jacques as its new CEO.

💳Industry/Market

🇧🇷 Pix, Brazil’s instant payment system operated by Banco Central do Brasil, now processes more transactions than Visa and Mastercard combined in the country. The milestone highlights the continued growth of real-time account-to-account payments in Brazil.

🇲🇽 FEMSA the Mexican retail and beverage conglomerate, paused its plan to obtain a banking license for its digital financial unit, Spin by OXXO. The company will keep operating the platform within the group as Spin already serves more than 16 million users.

🇲🇽 Mexico’s banking regulator (CNBV) signaled support for a potential “Fintech Law 2.0” during the Fintech Festival 2026, saying the country is ready to revisit the regulatory framework for the sector. Banxico also highlighted fintechs’ growing role in Mexico’s payments infrastructure, noting their increasing participation in the SPEI system.

How Meta can win AI with WhatsApp

A post exploring how WhatsApp could become a major distribution layer for AI if Meta opens the platform more aggressively to developers. It argues that simpler APIs, better business messaging tools, and stronger developer incentives could accelerate the creation of AI-powered services inside the messaging ecosystem.

The evolution of SINPE is fundamental for our economy (ES)

An opinion piece arguing that Costa Rica’s SINPE payments infrastructure has become central to the country’s digital economy and should continue evolving as an open platform. The author warns that slowing innovation could limit the system’s potential for financial inclusion and economic modernization.

Made in LatAm with 🩵by 

Elena, Head of New Technologies at Afirme Financial Group

Carlos, ESG Analyst at CFECapital

Vivi, Communication expert and Principal at Areté Consulting

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.

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