REPORT
Find out what are the cryptocurrency regulations by country in Thomson Reuters’ latest report. 👇
👉 Read the full article here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) announced that it is entering into an agreement with global payment processor Ebanx to provide an end-to-end digital collection solution (eCommerce) for Citi’s institutional clients in Latin America.
Citi’s clients will be able to accept more than 100 consumer payments online methods in 11 countries.
Through EBANX’s platform, institutional merchants will be able to collect from a variety of payment methods such as credit cards, e-wallets, and instant and local payment methods.
👉Read the full Finextra article here.
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📊 INFOGRAPHIC
While the unicorn scene in LATAM has cooled some this year, funding at the very earliest stages remains quite robust.
Seed and angel investment held up at around $300 million in Q1—roughly on par with the prior two quarters.
👉 Read the full Crunchbase article by Joanna Glasner here.
📰 ARTICLE
The founder of Argentine fintech Ualá, Pierpaolo Barbieri, is launching a venture capital firm that has raised $30 million from a roster of investors, including General Catalyst, Brevan Howard founder Alan Howard and others.
Through his new firm 17Sigma, Barbieri will focus on betting on early-stage startups in Latin America.
👉Read the full Bloomberg LP article here.
💬 INTERVIEW
Mastercard's crypto boss Raj Dhamodharan explains why he's not afraid of the blockchain.
“The most mature one is crypto as an investment asset class. NFTs is the next one. And there are a few other technologies like on the identity side and the DeFi side coming up in different levels of maturity and cycles.”
👉 Read the full Protokol article here.
💡INSIGHTS
Financial Technology Partners / FT Partners Research released their Q1 2022 FinTech Insights report, providing the most comprehensive review of global FinTech deal activity with analysis across private company financings, IPOs, M&A, and SPAC transactions.
👉 Check out the results here.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
☕️ REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Colombian fintech Leal arrives in Mexico; seeks to create 1,000 alliances with retailers. Link here.
⭐️ Uala founder Raises $30 million for LatAm venture capital fund. Link here.
⭐️NovoPayment has largely been focused on offering its API platform to customers in the Latin American market. Link here.
⭐️ WhatsApp integrates safe and simple real-time payments with its encrypted messaging service — powered by Mastercard Send™. Link here.
BRAZIL
WhatsApp, one of Brazil’s most popular messaging apps, saw the opportunity to integrate safe and simple real-time payments with its encrypted messaging service — powered by @Mastercard Send™.
Three-quarters (75%) of young Brazilians make payments through their mobile phone regularly and 53% would like to make payments using a messaging or social media app.
WhatsApp and Mastercard’s capabilities combined to bring even more convenience — making it possible to address a payment using the recipient’s phone number.
Senders authenticate the transaction simply and securely using a WhatsApp passcode, or biometrics, such as a fingerprint.
👉Read the full Mastercard story here.
COLOMBIA
PayU doubles down on LatAm fintech, acquires Ding - Tecnipagos S.A., and leads $46M investment in ‘superapp’ Treinta in Colombia.
“Our recent activity in Colombia reflects PayU‘s desire to provide seamless online and cross-border transactions for merchants and consumers,” said Mario Shiliashki, Global CEO of PayU‘s payments division, in a statement.
👉Read the full TechCrunch article by Ingrid Lunden here.
MEXICO
Colombian fintech Leal arrives in Mexico; seeks to create 1,000 alliances with retailers. After processing more than 40 million purchases in the region, the Colombian rewards platform arrives in Mexico to retain 3 million local users in 2022, which will be possible by creating around 1,000 alliances with retailers in the Mexican market.
The objective of this startup created by Camilo Martínez (CEO) and Florence Frech (COO) is to benefit consumers through multiple forms of savings, using technology to guarantee the best rewards in all their purchases, from those they make in a hairdresser, to hiring insurance.
👉 Read the full News.euro article here.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Thales de Freitas is the new country manager of cryptocurrency exchange and Mexican unicorn Bitso in Brazil. Since September last year, the country's operation of the cryptocurrency exchange was being run by its founder Daniel Vogel, who had moved to Brazil last year. Link here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.