REPORT
With a powerful collection of some of Wall Street’s most esteemed backers behind the challenger bank, Nubank’s December 2021 IPO was a watershed moment across the whole of the fintech landscape.
After its first full quarter as a public company, it’s clear that the performance of NU is going to play a major role in whether other firms follow suit.
Already we’ve seen other key players in the world of fintech scaling back their IPO plans as Nubank initially experienced mixed fortunes in its floatation.
After initially angling for a Q1 2022 IPO, US FinTech Chime shelved its plans to go public.
Meanwhile, other major challenger banks like Revolut have expressed no desire whatsoever to launch an IPO at this stage in its lifecycle.
👉 Read the full article here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Mastercard has filed 15 NFT and metaverse trademark applications as part of a wide-ranging plan to extend its payment processing system, slogans, and branding into the new virtual economy.
The filings were first referenced in a tweet by US trademark attorney Mike Kondoudis:
According to the filings, Mastercard sees four key applications for its services in the metaverse:
“Downloadable music files authenticated by non-fungible tokens (NFTs)”
“Marketplaces for digital goods and NFT backed media”
“Processing of virtual credit card, virtual debit card, virtual prepaid card, and virtual payment card transactions in the metaverse”
“Events and performances in the metaverse in the fields of finance, cryptocurrency, and NFTs”
“Online communities for digital assets, NFTs, metaverse and virtual worlds”
👉 Read the full Finextra article here.
🔦 Would you like to bring your company/service to the attention of tens of thousands of FinTech enthusiasts?
👉 Sponsor my newsletters and/or podcast episodes!
📰 ARTICLE
SoftBank Latin America Fund is creating a new entity for its investments in early-stage startups, called Upload Ventures. SoftBank will remain the largest shareholder in the new fund. Rodrigo Baer and Marco Camhaji, who were leading SoftBank Latin America Fund´s early-stage fund, will now lead Upload Ventures with angel investor Norberto Giangrande.
Giangrande has already invested in digital banks such as Nubank, Neon, and Cora, and startups such as Buser and Gupy. According to SoftBank, the spin-off is expected to be fully completed by the end of April.
Upload Ventures invests in early-stage companies in Latin America, maintaining its original investment target of approximately $100 million pre-year. Bear, Camhaji and Giangrande will be supported by their current 12- person team, which will fully migrate to Upload Ventures from offices in Brazil and Mexico.
👉 Read the full Bloomberg Línea article here.
👨💻 BLOG
VС’s view on FinTech and B2B Payments Infrastructure startups: In the last 15 months, FinTech infrastructure has become a truly hot topic, with a slew of funding rounds (see picture below👇).
First of all, let’s start with the definition: FinTech infrastructure is a combination of startups that empower banks to go digital and enable other startups to launch FinTech products.
Essentially, SaaS for banks and so-called embedded finance providers fall into this category.
👉 Read the full article by Gleb Onishchenko here.
💡INSIGHTS
Fintech RITMO has successfully closed a $200 million debt funding round led by i80 Group and Avellinia Capital, making it one of the largest funding rounds of any e-commerce finance business in Europe and Latin America (LATAM).
Founded in 2021 by Raimundo Burguera, Iñaki Mediavilla, Ivan Peña Uribe and Prageet Sharma, CFA, RITMO is a fintech platform that provides working capital financing and an automated Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) payment system for e-commerce businesses to overcome supply chain challenges, ensuring they can better manage cash flow and scale faster.
👉 Read the full article here.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
☕️ REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Brazil‘s Nubank, Latin America’s most valuable fintech, is fueling its expansion in Mexico and Colombia with the investment of a $650 million line of credit. Link here.
⭐️A new digital challenger, Adapta Bank, has launched in Brazil offering consumers all the features of modern-day banking through a free mobile app account. Link here.
⭐️ PayRetailers, the leading LATAM FinTech payment specialist, announced the acquisition of two online payments platforms, Chile’s Paygol and Colombia’s Pago Digital. Link here.
BRAZIL
Brazil‘s Nubank, Latin America’s most valuable fintech, is fueling its expansion in Mexico and Colombia with the investment of a $650 million line of credit.
The new funds are a three-year credit line in Mexican and Colombian pesos, financed by Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and HSBC, institutions that were underwriters of Nubank’s initial public offering (IPO) in December 2021.
Backed by Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway, Nubank said the funding will go towards technology and product development, customer-base growth, and hiring.
👉 Read the full LabsNews article here.
COLOMBIA
Truora, a Colombian user authentication startup, has raised $15 million in Series A funding co-led by two Silicon Valley-based venture firms.
Propel Venture Partners and Accel led the investment for Truora, which valued the company at $75 million post-money.
Founded in August 2018, Truora was originally focused on background checks for gigster platforms. In 2018 and 2019, its biggest customers were ride-hailing companies, and with the pandemic, the company saw an increase in e-commerce and marketplace customers.
Truora participated in Y Combinator’s Winter 2019 cohort and soon after expanded into digital identity and authentication technologies. That March, it raised $3.5 million in a seed round co-led by Accel and Kaszek at a $15 million valuation.
Truora describes itself as a SaaS startup that builds authentication and communication tools for Latin American startups, marketplaces, fintechs and banks. It specializes in user authentication and onboarding, mainly through WhatsApp.
👉 Read the full Techcrunch article written by Mary Ann Azevedo here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.