MVO BLOG
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Tul, an e-commerce platform specializing in construction materials, raised $181 million in an equity funding round led by 8VC.
Avenir Growth Capital, Coatue, Tiger Global, and SoftBank Latin America Fund also participated in the round, Enrique Villamarin, Tul’s chief executive officer, and co-founder, said in an interview.
The Bogota, Colombia-based startup is now valued at about $800 million, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
👉 Read the full Bloomberg article here.
📊 INFOGRAPHIC
👉 Read the full Colombia Fintech article here.
👨💻 BLOG
💡INSIGHTS
Most fintechs pride themselves on digital everything, including customer acquisition strategy.
But Bankaya, a Mexico City-based financial services startup, is attributing its early traction to the opposite model — going after target customers in person.
Founded in 2019 by CEO Mauricio Cordero, Ramón Chedraui, and Diego Vargas, Bankaya launched one year ago and boasted 450,000 customers as of year’s end. Impressively, and perhaps counterintuitively, most of that customer acquisition was via offline channels.
“We realized we can’t reach this segment digitally. We have to go offline, face to face,” he told TechCrunch. “Especially because many of our target customers live in rural or remote areas, doing things like saving money under the mattress.”
👉 Read the full Techcrunch article written by Mary Ann Azevedo here.
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NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
☕️ REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Why 2021 was a breakout year for Latin America's VC ecosystem. Link here.
⭐️ Brazilian brokerage XP to buy Credit Suisse-backed Banco Modal. Link here.
⭐️Zwipe and Forzacard to launch biometric payment cards in Mexico. Link here.
COSTA RICA
Costa Rican fintech company Impesa announced the raising of a $2.7 million round of capital to drive an expansion plan in the United States, Mexico, and South America.
The company, which specializes in the control of financial instruments and software development, stated that it obtained the resources from contributions from current shareholders of the company and new international investors.
The lead investor, the company explained in a press release, was Invermaster Ventures. This Miami-based entity specializes in venture capital investments in the technology-financial sector.
👉 Read the full born2invest article here.
COLOMBIA
Colombian buy now, pay later (BNPL) fintech Addi has landed $200 million of debt and equity to support its expansion plans in Latin America.
Headquartered in Bogota, the firm offers BNPL and traditional credit services.
The fintech now claims a valuation of $700 million following an $80 million equity injection from SoftBank’s LatAm Fund, alongside others, Crowdfund Insider reports.
The remaining $125 million in debt financing was mostly provided by Goldman Sachs Group.
👉 Read the full article here.
MEXICO
Citi announced that it intends to exit the consumer, small business, and middle-market banking operations of Citibanamex as part of its strategic refresh.
Citi will continue to operate a locally licensed banking business in Mexico through its global Institutional Clients Group. Citi has operated in Mexico for more than a century and the country will remain among Citi’s top institutional markets outside of the U.S. Citi will continue to invest in and grow those institutional banking operations, along with its Private Banking franchise.
Citi CEO Jane Fraser said, “The decision to exit the consumer, small business and middle-market banking businesses in Mexico is fully aligned with the principles of our strategy refresh—we’ll be able to direct our resources to opportunities aligned with our core strengths and competitive advantages, focus on businesses that benefit from connectivity to our global network, and we will further simplify our bank.”
👉 Read the full Citi group article here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.