Hola amig@s fintech,

We hope this next week goes well, and that the fintech industry in LatAm keeps giving us wonderful news to cover. 

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🩵 Until next weekend. Até a próxima!

• Lorena

🌐 TWIF Community

🗣️ Channels

📊 Stat of the Week 

In 2025 Mexico conducted 80% of its daily transactions in cash, while Argentina and Colombia recorded 70%. This high cash dependence highlights a huge opportunity for LatAm fintechs: areas like digital payments, micro-loans, and financial inclusion could grow significantly by reducing reliance on physical currency and serving unbanked populations. (Source) 

📖 Read of the Week

The report “Crypto Volumes on Centralized Exchanges Reached Yearly Highs in October” shows that over 30% of emerging fintech users in LatAm are linked to stablecoins or crypto-assets, indicating an increasing convergence between traditional fintech and crypto. The impact on the LatAm fintech ecosystem is substantial, it boosts innovation in digital payments, opens new opportunities for financial inclusion, and presents key regulatory challenges for platforms combining custody, lending and investment services.

🎙️ Podcast of the Week

💸 Venture Financing

💸 Equity

🇲🇽 MiChamba, the Mexican WhatsApp-based enterprise management platform, raised $2.25 million in a Pre-seed round led by Wollef, with participation from Audaz Capital and Nido Ventures. MiChamba converts WhatsApp into a traceable, AI-powered workflow tool so frontline teams don’t need to adopt new apps.

💵 Debt 

🇲🇽 Aviva, the Mexico-based company focused on microcredit for under-banked communities in the country, secured a $50 million credit line from Community Investment Management (CIM).  Previously, Aviva raised $5.5 million in a Seed round with lead investor Ignia Partners, and participation from Krealo, Carao Ventures, Rainforest Capital, DCG, Wollef, Newtopia, 500 Global, Magna VC.

☯️ Exits

🤝 M&A - Fintech

🇧🇷 Celcoin, the Brazilian digital infrastructure company, acquired Vulkan Labs, the San Francisco-based startup specializing in AI-driven risk decision engines, to double down on its credit business. Celcoin will integrate Vulkan’s proprietary no-code decision-engine platform, which orchestrates multiple data sources in real time and offers advanced dashboards. 

🇵🇪 Monnet Payments, the Peruvian payments solutions company, acquired the Chilean payment platform ETpay, aiming to expand its operations and reach 70 million transactions in Chile this year.

🚀 Product Launches & Partnerships

💻 Fintech

🇺🇾dLocal, the Uruguayan cross-border payment platform, integrated with Circle Payments Network (CPN) to enable stablecoin-based payouts across emerging markets using USDC and EURC. 

🇵🇪 Ligo, the Peruvian digital wallet, introduced an interoperable QR solution that enables users to receive payments from Yape, Plin, banks, and other wallets without requiring a bank account or POS device.

🏦 Financial Services & Banking 

🇲🇽 Santander México, in partnership with Mastercard, enabled Click to Pay directly via its mobile app, becoming the first Mastercard issuer in Mexico to do so. The feature is available for around 8 million digital customers with Mastercard cards, eliminating card data manual entry. 

📜 Policy

🇧🇷 The Central Bank of Brazil is preparing a dedicated regulatory framework for Open Finance partnerships, expected between 2025 and 2026. This responds to a rapid ecosystem expansion that now includes more than 80 million connected accounts and increasingly complex data-sharing agreements.

🇨🇱Banco de Chile received final regulatory approval to launch its own payment network, Banchile Pagos, which will initially operate with around 300 businesses across the country and aims to reach 150,000 businesses within three years.

🇵🇪 The Central Reserve Bank of Peru will release a new general payments regulation in December, after receiving more than 200 contributions during the public consultation. Meanwhile, the Superintendency of Banking, Insurance and Pension Administration Funds will publish its roadmap for implementing Open Finance.

📰 Other News 

🇦🇷 Finanex, the company that offers commercial advances in dollars to LatAm agricultural exporting SMEs using inventory warrants, disbursed more than $120 million in over 1,500 transactions since its creation four years ago. It operates with VC funds from North America, Europe, Central America, and Brazil, backed by the Inter-American Development Bank.

🇲🇽 The Mexican Banking Association proposed a 0% commission rate for new businesses that accept cards, in addition to merging the CoDi and DiMo systems with SPEI to stimulate the digitization of payments and reduce the use of cash.

🇨🇱 CORFO (Chile's Production Development Corporation) launched the 2025 call for applications for its "Inicia" program, aimed at early-stage ventures, with an emphasis on energy transition, circular economy, and health. The program prioritizes evidence-based validation, team strength, and the quality of the solution.

📚 Deeper Reads

AI mania is making Nvidia a lot of money

Mexico is set to be Latin America’s Next Fintech hub

War on the Banks? II (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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