MVO BLOG
REPORT
The metaverse is one of the hottest buzzwords in tech, and this far-reaching vision of a next-gen internet will rely upon an entire ecosystem of companies to make it a reality.
CB Insights cuts through the noise to explain what the metaverse is, how it's being built, and who's building it.
👉 Read the full article here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
PayU, the payments, and fintech business of Prosus, announced its investment in Treinta, the super-app that aims to digitalize Latin American SMEs by providing a broad range of services, including accounting, inventory management, and trading solutions.
Treinta will use these new funds to further strengthen its product offering, expand the app’s user base and attract the best talent in the region.
Launched in Colombia, Treinta aims to drive the inclusion of the more than 50 million SMEs currently operating in Latin America, a substantial opportunity representing 1/3rd of the region’s GDP.
👉 Big congrats to Lluís Cañadell and the Treinta team! 🚀 Read the full link here.
🔦 Would you like to bring your company/service to the attention of tens of thousands of FinTech enthusiasts?
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📊 INFOGRAPHIC
Jake Anderson has conducted a recent consumer research study on NFTs and Web3, surveying 5,118 consumers.
👉 Check out the results here.
📰 ARTICLE
After an unprecedented run-up, venture funding to Latin American startups fell in the first quarter of this year. Overall, investors put $3.4 billion into funding rounds in Q1 of 2022—down 30 percent from Q4 2021. Round counts also fell, with later-stage posting the sharpest drop at just 15 reported rounds, down from 35 in Q4.
👉Read the full article by Joanna Glasner here.
👨💻 BLOG
💬 INTERVIEW
Be sure to check out LABS interview of Carlos Gamboa, partner at Brazilian venture builder Fisher.
In Brazil, we had to get more involved (in the early stages of breeding startups) than in the American market due to this need to professionalize the business from the initial stages. It’s one of the things we’ve tried to break down to develop a more robust methodology that attracts the right people to this market.”
👉 Read the full interview here.
💡INSIGHTS
SoftBank Latin America Fund is replacing two top executives as Paulo Passoni and Shu Nyatta are leaving the Japanese conglomerate, in yet another change that comes in the wake of organizations of the fund for Latin America since the idealist of investments, Marcelo Claure, left the Japanese conglomerate unhappy whit his remuneration.
According to Nyatta, he and Passoni, former managing partners, are leaving to start their own venture business focused on late-stage startups in the region.
👉 Read the full Bloomberg Linea article here.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
☕️ REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ PayU doubles down on LatAm fintech, acquires Ding, and leads a $46M investment in ‘super-app’ Treinta in Colombia. Link here.
⭐️ Fintech NovoPayment raises the first venture round in 15 years to expand its full-stack banking API platform. Link here.
⭐️iugu raises US$21.3M to improve its financial automation platform. Link here.
⭐️ Stark Bank has received a $45 million investment led by Ribbit Capital, Lachy Groom, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ firm Bezos Expedition. Link here.
⭐️ Check out this FinTech map from Mexico shared by Openfinance Summit 2020🇲🇽. Link here.
⭐️ Check out Financial Technology Partners / FT Partners latest FinTech industry research: “The Blockchain Economy”. Link here.
BRAZIL
In Brazil, Meta, in its bid to become a true payments giant across all use cases, is facing significant headwinds.
Meta had been on the path to enable users to send money using WhatsApp to businesses via payments-to-merchant transactions, the Financial Times reported. That launch had been scheduled for last year. Yet, the proverbial runway has yet to be cleared for takeoff.
👉 Read the full Pymnts article here.
Ebanx, a payments fintech with a global presence, and VTEX, a digital commerce platform for large companies and retailers, announced an unprecedented partnership aimed at broadening cross-border payments for Brazilian e-commerce companies in Latin America.
Through this union, Brazilian companies will be able to enjoy more than 100 payment methods in 15 countries across Latin America.
👉 Read the full Finextra article here.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Brazilian digital bank Neon has appointed Twitter and Google veteran Koji Pereira Chief Design Officer. Link here.
OPPORTUNITIES
Andreessen Horowitz has advised numerous (FinTech-) startups from seed to pre-IPO on how and when to raise debt.
In this post, they cover the most common questions we hear, starting with the basics of how debt works, before breaking down the different debt options available at different stages and the current ecosystem of lenders.
👉 Read the full article here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.