MVO BLOG
INSIGHTS
I think 2022 will be a big year for business banking, with a lot more funding heading into that space. The recent fundraise of €400 million by Qonto is a good indicator of this trend in action. I'm very confident this won't be the last massive valuation we see in this sector. I actually predicted this as an area of growth last year and don't expect to see any slowdown over the next 12 months.
👉Read more here.
Are you a FinTech that needs some help with development? Shoot me a message!
INTERVIEW
Check out this interview with Marcos Cavagnoli, Digital Cash Management & Open Finance Director at Itaú Unibanco, as he sits down with The Paypers to discuss Open Banking in Brazil.
I think that Brazil-based banks will enter a competition-cooperation relationship with fintechs. For banks is good to partner with fintechs as they can come up with a different approach to very specific issues. Fintechs are exposed to a larger number of customers and banks can help them with funding and corporate structure as well.
👉Read more here.
ARTICLE
Launching and scaling a business involves taking big risks and you don't always have the guarantee that everything will turn out well. Developing an idea and making it come true requires a mental state that allows you to celebrate victories and overcome failures without lowering your conviction and energy.
Be sure to check out this insightful article by Sebastian Kreis on the motivations behind Xepelin and the opportunities that the region has to offer.
Entrepreneurs are dreamers with a common goal: To make the world a better place. Xepelin was born under that premise.
👉Read more here.
INFOGRAPHIC
In recent years, we have seen a boom in the number of FinTechs in Mexico, and the major companies have begun to embrace regulation under traditional legal figures.
Along with the new 'Fintech Law', the number of regulated and supervised FinTechs is growing exponentially, increasing confidence in the ecosystem and deepening innovation in the financial sector.
Check the full overview made by Addem Capital in the picture below
👉 Read more here.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF THE LATEST NEWS IN LATAM
NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
After a few months flirting with the Brazilian market, Clara, a Mexican corporate spend-management fintech, finally debuts its operations in Brazil boosted by a new $70 million funding in a Series B round Coatue – investment manager who has also bet on names such as Bytedance (TikTok), Cloudwalk, Deel and Bitso.
Clara’s previous investors also participated in the round: DST, monashees, General Catalyst, Avid Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Alter Global, among others.
The new round brings Clara’s valuation to $ 1 billion, making the fintech the newest Mexican unicorn – and, according to the company, the first Latin American startup to reach unicorn status in less than one year of operations.
The new round came only five months after the $30 million Series A.
👉Read more here.
REGION HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Fundraising is likely to become momentarily tougher for financial startups in Latin America as the prospect of higher interest rates has reduced investor appetite for riskier assets, chief financial officers told the Reuters Next conference. Link here.
⭐️ Chilean fintech Creditú announced the arrival of its property financing solution in Brazil this Thursday. Link here.
⭐️ Chubb, the world's largest publicly traded property and casualty insurer, announced its most recent digital alliance with Betterfly, a Latin America digital benefits platform used by companies to encourage employees' commitments to self-care. Link here.
⭐️ B2B payments and financing company Tribal Credit announced its expansion plans in Latin America, with operations starting in Colombia, Peru, and Chile next month. Link here.
⭐️ BBVA’s Center for Financial Education and Capability has announced the five financial education research projects that will receive funding through its grant program, BBVA EduFin Research Grants. A total of €50,000 will be distributed among the winning projects, whose research will take place in Spain, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. Link here.
⭐️ Blockchain.com, one of the world's oldest and most trusted cryptocurrency platforms, has acquired SeSocio, one of the largest crypto companies in Argentina and one of the most prolific across Latin America. Link here.
BRAZIL
2TM, the holding company for Mercado Bitcoin, Brazil’s largest crypto exchange by market valuation, raised an additional $50.3 million in the second closing of its Series B funding round. New investors included 10T, a crypto-focused private equity firm, and Tribe Capital, a venture capital firm with investments in crypto exchanges FTX and Kraken, the company said in a statement. 2TM plans to expand operations in Latin America, Dagnoni said, highlighting Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Mexico as “main priorities.” 👉 Link here.
Nu Holdings, the parent company of the fintech superstar Nubank, is seeking a valuation ranging from $37Bn to $41Bn+ in its IPO on December 2021. Even though this valuation may be slipping and sliding until the actual date of this IPO, it should definitely remain huge. 👉 Link here.
Also, Nubank is considering cutting the potential valuation of its initial public offering following a slump in technology stocks globally, Bloomberg News reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. 👉 Link here.
ARGENTINA
Grupo Supervielle S.A., a universal financial services group in Argentina with a nationwide presence, announces the relaunch of IUDÚ, a fintech that provides digital banking products and services regulated by the Central Bank as a financial company, offering its clients the best digital financial services proposal.
Designed to make the experience simple, and prioritize time and savings, it aims to solve needs around access, immediacy, lower costs in banking products and ease when acquiring or managing any product, in a 100% digital way.
👉 Read more here.
CARIBBEAN
A new neobank that combines digital banking necessities with crypto asset capabilities has emerged in the Caribbean.
Migom Bank Ltd. bills itself as a crypto-friendly global bank for the unbanked, providing banking services for businesses in emerging markets.
👉Read more here.
MEXICO
Mendel, a corporate spend management solution for enterprises in Latin America, announced it has secured $35 million in debt and equity. The Mexico-based startup closed the $15 million Series A round and $20 million debt financing after participating in Y Combinator’s Winter 2021 cohort. 👉 Link here.
Mexican fintech Kueski has raised $202 million in a Series C funding round, providing the company with ample resources to continue growing in Mexico and provide new products. 👉 Link here.
EL SALVADOR
In the last 2 months, El Salvador has undergone one of the most important digital transformations in the world, thanks to the adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender, after the approval by the legislative assembly last June.
Since then, Chivo Wallet, the first legal tender crypto wallet in a country in the world, took on the challenge of becoming the main method of making transactions with Bitcoin. Helping people in the process of adopting the new technology.
👉Read more here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.