Hola amig@s fintech,

From the beaches of Costa Rica to the Pacific coasts of Mexico and Peru, Latin America isn’t just riding ocean waves—it’s riding an impressive fintech wave, too. The region’s startup ecosystems continue to grow, fueled by rapid digital adoption and expanding financial inclusion. And with El Salvador as a great example—both for its world-class surf and its bold digital finance experiments—the intersection of innovation, policy, and lifestyle has never been more exciting.

Stay tuned for more of our fintech coverage across the region—and don’t forget to subscribe!

🩵 Until next weekend. Até a próxima!

• Lorena

🌐 TWIF Community

🗣️ Channels

📊 Stat of the Week 

 Despite high-profile headlines, such as BYD’s takeover of Ford’s former factory in Latam, data shows that China is not replacing the US regarding investments in LatAm. Over one-third of all FDI since 2020 comes from the US. While China leads only in Ecuador, the US remains the top investor in Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Panama. Spain leads in Argentina and Bolivia, underscoring that US economic influence remains dominant in the region (Source).

📖  Read of the Week

According to the report “LatAm Trends: What to Watch in Fintech in 2025  by Jeeves, LatAm fintech sector is shifting from a “growth at all costs” model to sustainable, profitable scale, driven by a surge in open finance, AI agents, and on-chain infrastructure. Digital payment revenue is projected to triple to $0.3 trillion by 2027, powered by real-time systems like Pix and mobile wallet adoption. Embedded finance and tokenization of real-world assets present powerful levers for inclusion and innovation.

🎙️ Podcast of the Week

💸 Venture Financing

💸 Equity

🇧🇷 Credix, the Brazilian leading B2B credit technology company, raised $100 millions in a mixed equity and debt round to scale its lending operations and improve its credit & risk research. The round included participation from BTG Pactual, Pátria, Valor Capital, ParaFi Capital, and Polígono Capital. 

🇨🇴 LQN, the Colombian proptech that digitizes home equity origination and processing, raised $12 million in a mixed equity and debt round led by Grupo Pegasus. The company plans to use the capital to launch a lending vehicle secured by real estate, allowing homeowners to unlock the value of their property to access credit. 

🇨🇴 Welli, the Colombian company specializing in financing for medical procedures for patients, received an investment from Kreálo, the Corporate Venture Capital of the Credicorp Group. The amount was not disclosed.

💵 Debt 

🇨🇴 Addi, the Colombian leading commerce and financial platform, raised a $71 million credit upsizing from Goldman Sachs, Fasanara Capital, and BBVA Spark.

☯️ Exits

🤝 M&A - Fintech

🇺🇾 Exodus Movement, the self-custodial crypto wallet provider, announced the acquisition of Grateful, a Uruguay-based stablecoin payments orchestrator, to expand its merchant services in LatAm. Grateful enables merchants and gig workers to accept payments via stablecoins, offering lower fees, instant access to funds, QR-based POS, and wallet-to-wallet payments. 

🚀 Product Launches & Partnerships

💻 Fintech

🇺🇾 dLocal, the payments platform connecting global enterprises with emerging markets, and Felix introduced a WhatsApp-based remittance service connecting the United States with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The system leverages USDC to fund transfers, enabling delivery within minutes and achieving a 99% success rate.

🇧🇷 Nubank Brazil introduced two new tools designed to promote responsible credit usage: Nu Límite Garantido and Missão Límite. Both features allow customers to increase their credit card limit by allocating funds from their Caixinha savings feature, creating a secured structure that supports healthier credit habits while expanding access to financial services.

🇨🇴 Nequi, the Colombian digital wallet, introduced “Giros a un Link,” a new remittance service that enables users in the United States to send money to Colombia through a shared link. Senders can complete the transfer using Visa or Mastercard, streamlining cross-border payments.

🇦🇷 Buenbit, the Argentina-based crypto exchange, launched “Buenbit Prime,” a premium membership aimed at freelancers and users receiving payments in dollars. The program offers free deposits, enhanced yields on digital asset investments, discounts on prepaid cards, and access to USDC-denominated mortgage loans.

🇨🇱 Santiago’s MetroMuv, a subsidiary of Metro de Santiago, has officially launched its new Visa prepaid card, available in both physical and digital formats. The product enables users to make purchases at in-person and online merchants, domestically and abroad.

🇧🇷 PicPay, one of Brazil’s leading digital banks, has introduced U.S. dollar and euro accounts for its users, enabling them to save in strong currencies, convert Brazilian reais instantly, and conduct international purchases with Visa cards directly from the app.

🇲🇽 Finsus announced a partnership with Oxxo that will allow users to withdraw cash at any of the retailer’s more than 24,000 stores nationwide, expanding access to cash withdrawals for users of digital financial services across Mexico.

🇧🇷 Liqi, the Brazilian tokenization platform, introduced a new investment modality backed by U.S. assets, enabling local investors to access dollar-denominated returns through tokenized instruments designed to provide greater stability and diversification.

🇨🇴 dale!, the Colombian digital wallet of Grupo Aval, introduced a new feature that enables more than 4 million users and 763,000 merchants to send and receive money directly through WhatsApp, strengthening real-time payments and expanding frictionless digital acceptance across Colombia.

🏦 Financial Services & Banking 

🇲🇽 Uber, in partnership with Consubanco and Bkaya, introduced the Uber Pro Card in Mexico, a financial solution designed for drivers and delivery partners. The debit card, issued by Consubanco, offers enhanced control over earnings, exclusive benefit programs, and greater financial flexibility to support day-to-day liquidity needs.

🇨🇴 Chebre, the digital payments brand developed by Credibanco, aims to streamline merchant collections and boost SME growth in Colombia, targeting the onboarding of approximately 10,000 new businesses by 2026.

🇦🇷 Mercado Pago Argentina introduced a zero-interest credit program for entrepreneurs, small merchants, and service providers operating within its ecosystem.

🇦🇷 Getnet, the payments company from Argentina, rolled out a new feature that enables merchants to settle funds from their sales into any bank account (CBU) or virtual wallet (CVU) of their choice.

📜 Policy

🇲🇽 PayPal Payments México received authorization from the National Banking and Securities Commission to operate as an Electronic Payment Funds Institution (IFPE), marking a significant milestone in its regulatory integration.

🇧🇷 Brazil’s Central Bank announced that beginning in 2026 it will apply the same risk-assessment rules and supervisory controls to non-bank institutions—such as Payment Institutions (IP)—that currently govern the banking sector.

🇧🇷 Brazil’s Central Bank published new minimum capital rules, introducing the first major update in nearly 30 years. The revised framework is designed not to limit competition in the financial system

📰 Other News 

🌎 Marin Mignot was named Chief Operating Officer at EBANX.

🇵🇪 BBVA Peru announced a strategic push into open finance to deliver more integrated, user-centric experiences by enabling secure data sharing and API-driven services across accounts, payments and third-party apps. The move aims to accelerate embedded finance and partner ecosystems across the region. 

🇦🇷 Bitso, the cryptocurrency exchange platform, is evaluating a major investment in Argentina in 2026 to deepen local operations and product availability; Bitso remains a key regional crypto infrastructure player with millions of users. 

🇦🇷 The Argentine Football Association and the company Win Investments, launched a “Transfers 3.0” initiative using blockchain to modernize the player-transfer market, tokenized contracts and transparent registries aim to speed payments, reduce intermediaries, and enable new financing and secondary-market mechanisms for clubs and players.

🌎 Evoltis, the LatAm AI integrator, formalized a dual strategic partnership with NVIDIA and a strengthened partnership with AWS to deliver advanced AI and cloud services to enterprise clients across the region.

🇲🇽 Patagon AI, the AI company, opened new offices in Mexico to scale LatAm operations and deliver AI services to banks, insurers and fintechs locally, part of broader regional expansion. 

🇲🇽 Santander and Solfium, the energy solutions company, provide tailored solar project financing for corporates, leveraging ESG-linked lending. The move creates new green-finance opportunities for fintechs in energy-financing, payments and asset-tokenization. 

📚 Deeper Reads

Are data centers the new oil fields?

What Is XChat, Musk’s New Social App With Bitcoin-Like Privacy?

AI could make you unproductive (and you might not even realize it) (ES)

📣 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, Sustainability Analyst at CFECapital

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

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