👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Three months after it achieved unicorn status with a value of more than $1 billion, the Latin American startup Clara has launched into Colombia with support from Mastercard’s global payments network.
Clara’s arrival in the transcontinental country, which spans South America and North America, comes after the company’s first year of operation in Mexico. It’s part of the company’s expansion strategy in Latin America, where its goal is to debut in Argentina, Chile, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay, the company said.
The Colombian office’s team of nearly three dozen plans to offer its business expense management platform to thousands of companies.
👉 Read the full Pymnts article here.
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📰 ARTICLE
Plurall, a new Colombian FinTech focused on improving the financial inclusion of Solopreneurs in LatAm, closed an iconic pre-seed round raising $1.5m equity and $10m debt, marking a milestone for entrepreneurship in the region.
Backed by prominent strategic investors in the United Kingdom, United States, Mexico, Spain, and Colombia, Plurall prepares to launch its microbusiness-oriented services in April 2022.
👉 Read the full Finextra article here.
💡INSIGHTS
Infrastructure startups continue to attract venture dollars across the globe, especially in the case of payments infrastructure providers.
No-code too also remains a draw. A startup that is a blend of the two can be found in Bogota, Colombia-based Simetrik, which just raised $20 million in a Series A funding round at a valuation “north of $100 million.”
The startup says its infrastructure “delivers greater control and transparency” over a company’s financial transactions by automating reconciliation through a no-code offering.
In other words, says co-founder and COO Santiago Gomez, the company’s software automates reconciliation for financial teams that have a high number of transactions and reports. It works by reconciling that financial information with the aim of providing “real-time visibility, traceability, and cleaned information” to their finances.
“What makes us better than competitors is the fact that it is provided as a service, where finance teams are independent from tech teams in configuring a big data back end with a spreadsheet-like interface,” Gomez told TechCrunch.
👉 Read the full Techcrunch article written by Mary Ann Azevedo here.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
☕️ REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Rio de Janeiro will allow the payment of a municipal real estate tax with cryptocurrencies starting in 2023. Link here.
⭐️ Nocnoc announced it has raised a US $7 million seed round. Link here.
⭐️ Galileo is currently providing services in Colombia. Link here.
⭐️ Vexi raised a $24M funding round in debt and equity. Link here.
BRAZIL
The Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro will allow the payment of a municipal real estate tax with cryptocurrencies starting in 2023, the city announced on Friday.
Through this initiative, Rio de Janeiro will become the first city in Brazil to allow the payment of a tax using cryptocurrencies. The state administration will not store crypto because payments will be immediately converted to Brazilian reais through a company that has not yet been contracted, the city added in its official statement.
"Our effort here is to make it clear that in the city of Rio we have official initiatives that recognize this market," Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes said in a statement, adding: "Now those who invest in cryptocurrency and live in the city of Rio will be able to spend this asset here paying official tax in the city of Rio. And we're going to move on this fast."
👉 Read the full Coindesk article written by Paulo Alves here.
URUGUAY
Nocnoc, an Uruguay-based tech enabler that connects international sellers to local ecommerce marketplaces throughout Latin America, announced it has raised a US $7 million seed round co-led by Mouro Capital and Quona Capital.
Other investors include Caravela, Olist, and Broadhaven, as well as angel investor Diego Dzodan (Facily founder and CEO) and Flavio Dias (former CEO of Walmart Brazil and VIA). The company will use the funds for the continued improvement of its proprietary technology that helps global sellers reach and sell to more customers in Latin America.
Latin America represents a $86B consumer market – yet less than 4% of goods sold today across Latin America’s local marketplaces come from global sellers.
Navigating the complexity of ever-changing customs regulations, international shipping and payments, store reputation, site exposure algorithms, and local customer support has historically kept most global sellers out of the region.
👉 Read the full Finance Yahoo article here.
COLOMBIA
Galileo Financial Technologies, a subsidiary of SoFi Technologies, Inc., announced its recent expansion into Colombia. Galileo is currently providing services in Colombia where it can partner with issuers, banks, e-commerce, and fintechs to enable their digital financial services offerings.
Since Galileo’s arrival in Mexico in 2020, it has established itself as a leading financial technology company in Latin America having onboarded more than one million end-user accounts in the region.
Galileo serves leading fintechs, like Ualá in Mexico and Colombia, as well as other clients that offer digital financial services, ranging from debit, credit and business-to-business (B2B) payments to remittances, buy now, pay later (BNPL), cryptocurrency and other emerging payments.
👉 Read the full FF News article here.
MEXICO
Mexican fintech Vexi raised a $24M funding round in debt and equity. The equity portion of the financing was led by Magma Partners, while Accial Capital led the debt funding. Other investors include Alpha4Ventures, Village Capital, Pomona Impact, and Noa Capital.
Vexi provides credit cards with a 100% mobile and digital experience to the rising middle-income population in Mexico, and Vexi’s strong unit economics has helped it bootstrap part of its growth.
The team spent the first years developing the main systems: the payment processor and the core credit card system. So, unlike almost all the neobanks, Vexi doesn’t depend on any third-party software to operate.
👉 Read the full Latam List article written by Alejandra Cruz Garcia here.
CHILE
Which companies are soon to become unicorns in Chile?
LatamFintechHub has another map for us this week: Soonicorns Chile 2022.
Apart from a very informative map, the article includes a detailed overview of the soon-to-be Chilean Unicorns.
The list includes companies like Xepelin, Fintual, Compara, Global66, Cumplo, Buda.com
👉 Check out the full article here.
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Thanks mate, really useful!