Hola amig@s fintech,

One of the truths about taking time off is that the world, fintech news, and many things happening across Latin America, do not rest! If we missed a few updates, news, and developments over the past couple of weeks, we appreciate your patience… but we are back!

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🩵 Until next weekend. Até a próxima!

• Lorena

🌐 TWIF Community

🗣️ Channels

📊 Stat of the Week 

Mexico, where only 47% of adults have a bank account (compared to 74% in Chile, and over 80% in Brazil), manages around $60 billion in GDP per bank, revealing a low-density and concentrated banking system. This banking gap, coupled with limited formal credit access, creates an important opening for fintechs: they can address financial inclusion through digital services, alternative payments, lending, and scalable financial solutions that traditional banks leave unmet (Source).

📖  Read of the Week

The document "Open banking in Latin America," by Mastercard, highlights Brazil as Latin America’s standout in open banking, with 4.8 billion successful API calls by June 2023—more than four times the UK's 1.1 billion—even though Brazil's population is over three times larger. This rapid scale is fueled by Brazil’s real-time payment system Pix, now used by 156 million people (over 70% of the population) and fully integrated into open banking. That infrastructure has catalyzed innovations like alternative credit scoring, instant onboarding, PFM tools, and embedded finance (cross-selling, automation, investments), creating a fertile environment for fintech growth in the region

🎙️ Podcast of the Week

💸 Venture Financing

💸 Equity

🇲🇽 Digitt, the Mexican company focused on offering fair and transparent personal finance tools with low annual credit rates, raised a $10 million Series A round led by Yolo Investments, with participation from IGNIA Partners, Capria Ventures, and angel investors Renaud Laplanche, Manolo Sánchez, Dillon Krasnigor, John Buttrick, and Nino Fanlo. 

🇧🇷 Osigu, the LatAm healthcare payments infrastructure provider, raised $10 million in investment from EOS Ventures, marking EOS’s first investment in the region to bolster Osigu's mission of reshaping healthcare payments across LatAm.

🇲🇽 Kira, the Miami-based company infrastructure platform operating in Mexico, raised a $2 million Pre-Seed round to launch its AI-stablecoin infrastructure that enables non-financial businesses to offer embedded fintech services via a unified API. 

🇨🇴 Guama, the Colombian company focused on financial inclusion by extending credit access to individuals rejected by traditional banks using Open Banking data, raised a $1.5 million Seed round.

🇨🇴 Loto, the Colombian company offering SMEs a platform that combines debit and credit cards with accounting software, raised a $1 million Pre-Seed round with participation from Fen Ventures, Crestone VC, QAPU Ventures, and Desygn Capital. 

🇧🇷 Mercado de Recebíveis, the Brazilian company providing receivables-based financial solutions with a recently launched Visa-linked credit card, achieved a $56 million valuation in a funding round led by Headline. The company, founded in 2023, reached break-even in May 2024 and has processed over $190 million this year. 

💵 Debt 

🇲🇽 Trafalgar, the Mexican company preparing to launch AI-powered SME banking services, secured a $50 million debt facility from several undisclosed institutional debt funds (one in the US, one in the UK).

🇧🇷 Asaas, the Brazilian company specializing in accounts receivable financing (FIDC), raised a $3.4 million via FIDC (Fundo de Investimento em Direitos Creditórios)

📺 Sponsored Content

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☯️ Exits

🤝 M&A - Fintech & Banking sector

🇵🇷 Evertec, the Puerto Rican payment-processing startup, acquired a 75% stake in Tecnobank, the Brazilian firm specializing in digital registration of vehicle financing contracts, for approximately $145 million. 

🇲🇽 Incode, the Mexican AI-driven identity-verification fintech, acquired AuthenticID, a company providing document and biometric verification plus workflow orchestration used by banks and telecoms across North and LatAm.

🇲🇽 Kapital Bank, the Mexican digital bank, acquired part of Intercam, after previously buying Banco Autofin for about $50 million to secure a banking license,  showcasing how digital banks can capitalize on traditional institutions' vulnerabilities.

🚀 Product Launches & Partnerships

💻 Fintech

🇧🇷 Stripe, the international company focused on payment processing, reached a partnership agreement with Ebanx, the payment technology provider, to expand its coverage in Brazil through Pix.

🇨🇴 Felix Pago, the Miami-based remittance-focused fintech, launched operations in Colombia, enabling users to send money via WhatsApp.

🇵🇪 Yape, the Peruvian company, announced a strategic partnership with Western Union, enabling users in Peru to receive remittances through digital platforms or at physical retail locations.

🇦🇷 Naranja X, the Argentinian financial services provider, announced the launch of “Health Protection” in partnership with Galicia Seguros. The offering includes 24/7 telemedicine, at-home medical care, reimbursements for medications and specialist consultations, as well as dental and psychological coverage.

🇨🇴 RapiCredit Colombia announced the launch of a WhatsApp communication channel, enabling users to request loans, make payments, or extend payment deadlines.

🇨🇴 Cobre, the Colombian corporate treasury platform, announced its integration with the Bre-B system through Credibanco, acting as a node within the payments network.

🇨🇴 Wasticredit, the Colombian credit access platform, launched operations, aiming to serve individuals without credit history, micro-entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs, and single mothers.

🇲🇽Sling Money, the global transfer platform, launched its services in the Mexican market, using regulated stablecoins such as $USDP, $USDC, and $EURC to facilitate payments.

🌎Rappi announced its partnership with AstroPay, launching the region's first wallet-on-file integration, enabling users in Argentina, Brazil, and Peru to pay seamlessly in different currencies.

🏦 Financial Services & Banking 

🇲🇽Banco Santander signed an agreement with OpenAI aiming to become an AI-native bank, enabling every decision, process, and interaction to be driven by data and intelligent technology.

🇲🇽 BBVA Mexico launched "Comercio Inteligente," an integrated digital banking tool that provides businesses with strategic customer insights, advanced analytics, and intelligent segmentation.

🇲🇽 BanCoppel acquired CIBanco’s auto loan portfolio, representing just over 45% of the bank’s credit business, amid U.S. Treasury allegations of money laundering.

🌎Visa announced its partnership with Uplinq, a global credit assessment platform powered by AI, with the objective of promoting credit access for small and medium-sized enterprises in Latin America and the Caribbean.

📜 Policy

🇧🇷 Visa Conecta, recently established for its operations in Brazil, received authorization from the Central Bank to operate as a payment institution.

🇧🇷 Antonio Frexio received authorization from the Central Bank of Brazil to assume operational control of Acqio, which operates as a payment institution.

🇧🇷 A group of 31 officials from the Central Bank of Brazil signed an open letter in support of Constitutional Amendment Proposal 65/23, which seeks to guarantee the institution’s financial autonomy. They emphasized their backing of the amendment as a measure to safeguard Pix as a public digital infrastructure.

🇧🇷 The Brazilian Association of Payment Institutions (Apibag) released a Practical Guide for Payment Institutions on Data and Services Exchange in Open Finance, providing guidance on applicable rules for data and service sharing.

🇧🇷 The Central Bank of Brazil issued amendments to Pix regulations aimed at enhancing the Special Return Mechanism, a tool that allows victims of fraud, scams, or coercion to recover funds within 11 days after the dispute is initiated.

🇧🇷 Brazil’s Ministry of Finance announced that it will issue a Normative Instruction requiring fintechs to provide customer transaction data to the Federal Revenue Service, similar to the reporting obligations imposed on traditional banks since 2015.

🇲🇽 Mexico’s Ministry of Finance and Public Credit appointed Ángel Cabrera Mendoza as President of the National Banking and Securities Commission.

🇨🇱 Chilean fintech Fintoc, specialized in payment solutions, received authorization from the National Banking and Securities Commission to operate as an Electronic Payment Funds Institution.

🌎 Plata Card, a Mexican company, received authorization from Colombia’s Superintendencia Financiera to begin operations as a financing company.

🇨🇴 The Banco de la República in Colombia postponed the launch of its instant payments system, Bre-B, to October 9 due to implementation challenges.

📰 Other News 

🇲🇽 Rappi secured a $100 million senior secured loan from Kirkoswald Private Credit and Banco Santander to fund growth, refinancing, and working capital, anchoring a long-term strategic partnership.

🇻🇪 Cashea, the Venezuelan company powering a microcredit program, now supports 30 La Cascada stores, enabling them to sustain operations through point-of-sale lending solutions.

🇲🇽 Reworth, the company creating Latin America's first Financial Media Network (FMN), transforms banks into high-ROI media channels by using transaction data to deliver merchant-funded cashback in bank apps. 

📚 Deeper Reads

Financial inclusion doesn't start with products, but with people

Fintech Law 2.0: The plan Mexico needs to lead in financial innovation

Neoacquiring, the new era of payment acceptance

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

Made in LatAm with 🩵by 

Elena, Digital Innovation Manager at Banco Azteca

Carlos, Senior Associate at Emant Consultants

Lorena, Head of Policy for Spanish-speaking LatAm at Tools for Humanity

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