Hola amig@s fintech,

September is heating up! The Finnosummit conference is back in Mexico City, and this year we’re planning three exciting events: our annual Fintech Mixer (Sep 23), a Sunset happy hour (Sep 24), and an exclusive breakfast (Sep 25). RSVP now and join us for top networking and insightful discussions. 

During October, don’t miss the comeback of RiskCon Mexico City (Oct 8) brought to you by Ocscilar and TWIF —an essential gathering for anyone focused on risk, compliance, and innovation. 

We hope to see you at our upcoming events. In the meantime, stay in the loop, by subscribing and following us!

🩵 Until next weekend. Até a próxima!

• Lorena

🌐 TWIF Community

🗣️ Channels

📊 Stat of the Week 

In Q2 2025, Mexico surpassed Brazil in VC funding for the first time in 13 years, raising $437M vs. Brazil’s $350M, mostly driven by Klar’s $170M Series C that valued the fintech at $800M. While overall VC in the region grew 8% YoY in 2024, fintech’s share of investment is declining—from 61% of VC in 2024 to roughly 38–39% in 2025, signaling both the sector’s maturity and rising competition from other industries, but still highlighting its central force reshaping financial services in LatAm (Source).

📖  Read of the Week

Mastercard's report “Transforming Payments: Digital Solutions for Traditional Commerce in the CPG Industry” reveals that nearly 12 million small CPG retailers in LatAm and the Caribbean generate USD 362 billion in B2C sales. Nevertheless, 43% still transacted in cash. For fintech companies and financial service providers, this represents a massive pathway to boost financial inclusion, provide credit and digital payments, and strengthen micro-entrepreneurs and supply chain resilience across the region.

🎙️ Podcast of the Week

💸 Venture Financing

💸 Equity

🇲🇽 Kapital, the Mexican AI-driven neobank serving SMEs across Mexico, Colombia, and the U.S., raised a $86 million Series C round led by Tribe Capital with co-leadership from Pelion Ventures, and participation from Y Combinator, Marbruck Ventures, and True Arrow. 

📺 Sponsored Content

☯️ Exits

🤝 M&A - Fintech & Banking sector

🇲🇽 Klar, the Mexican company, acquired Bineo, the digital-only bank launched by Banorte in January 2024, integrating the banking license and all assets into its operations by purchasing 100% of the shares through its subsidiary Clearscope Holdings. The transaction, which could involve a purchase price hovering around US $100 million, is still pending regulatory approvals from SHCP, CNBV, and the Central Bank. 

🇧🇷 B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, acquired a 62% stake in Shipay, a startup that offers unified integrations for Pix, wallets, QR codes, e-commerce, ERPs, and POS systems, for US $6.8 million, with an option to purchase the remaining shares by 2030, based on performance. 

🇨🇱 Bicecorp and Grupo Security announced their merger, creating the financial group BICE.

🚀 Product Launches & Partnerships

💻 Fintech

🇧🇷 Swap, the Brazilian company focused on integrated financial solutions, announced a partnership with Mastercard to launch a Mastercard coupon system in Brazil.

🇲🇽 Binance announced the launch of Meda in Mexico, with a planned investment of USD 53 million over the next four years.

🇲🇽 Vexi, the Mexican company, announced a partnership with Tapi, the digital payments network, to enable a Bill Payment feature within its app, allowing users to pay for basic services directly.

📜 Policy

🇧🇷 Brazil’s Federal Revenue Service announced that Normative Instruction 2278, published on August 28, will take effect in January 2026. The regulation requires payment institutions to report financial transactions, payment account balances, and significant transactions to the tax authority.

🇧🇷 The Central Bank of Brazil announced measures to strengthen security and transparency in transactions carried out by financial tech companies. Among them is the creation of a R$15,000 limit on Pix transactions to curb money laundering by organized crime. The Bank also stated that by the end of the year, additional measures will be issued to reinforce the security of the National Financial System, covering unauthorized Payment Institutions and those connected to the National Financial System Network.

🇧🇷 President Lula Da Silva published a decree in the Official Gazette of the Union requiring fintech institutions to be subject to the same level of oversight and regulation as traditional banks, aiming to combat tax-related crimes such as money laundering, concealment, and fraud.

📰 Other News 

🇲🇽 Sebastián De Lara was named Chief Regulation and Expansion Officer at Finsus.

🇲🇽 WhatsApp Business is rolling out a new chat feature that allows small businesses to easily share their standardized 18-digit CLABE bank account number directly with customers via WhatsApp, eliminating manual copying and pasting, improving security with end-to-end encryption, and enhancing the payment experience for customers who prefer messaging as their main communication channel.

🇲🇽 VEMO, the clean mobility platform, raised a $250 million round led by Vision Ridge Partners, bringing its total equity and debt financing to over $500 million. The funds will be used to expand EV deployments and charging infrastructure across Mexico as VEMO aims to invest more than $1.5 billion over the next five years.

📚 Deeper Reads

The growing debate over expanding age verification laws

Open Finance in Argentina: What the BCRA's plan is to facilitate access to credit (ES)

Digital crime in Argentina triggers cooperation between the state and the fintech sector (ES)

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

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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