THIS WEEK’S FUNDING NEWS OVERVIEW
👀 Are you interested in funding news from the FinTech space?
💡 Read all about it in my weekly overview article and get the latest funding news from the global FinTech space in your inbox every week.
REPORT
The pandemic accelerated our embrace of digital payments — and that, in turn, appears to have shifted how we think about money, from how we make payments to what we even view as currency, according to Mastercard’s New Payments Index.
👉Read the full report here.
REPORT
Latin America is one of the fastest-growing e-commerce markets in the world – and there is no decline in sight.
Download the full Ebanx report here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Geopagos, a payments infrastructure startup based in Buenos Aires, has raised $35 million in a round led by Riverwood Capital.
Geopagos has a presence in 15 Latin American countries and says it facilitates more than 150 million transactions with a processed volume of $5 billion per year.
👉 Read the full TechCrunch article here.
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📊 INFOGRAPHIC
Venture investing in Latin America is correcting quickly to pre-pandemic trends after enjoying an unprecedented run in 2021, illustrated by the pullback of the region's most prominent champion: SoftBank.
VC investment in LatAm fell to $2.04 billion in Q2 2022, a 71% decline from a quarterly high of $7.12 billion in Q3 2021. SoftBank participated in LatAm VC deals worth $1.57 billion in the first half of 2022, down from $4.31 billion in the preceding two quarters.
👉 Read the full Pitchbook article here.
📰 ARTICLE
A new report by Deel, a recruitment and payment platform for remote employees, indicates that cryptocurrencies continue to be especially sought after by remote workers.
The report analyzed more than 100,000 contracts globally. “Cryptocurrency withdrawals remain stable over the last six months” at a global level, and “become popular in places with currency volatility,” according to Deel’s Global Report on International Talent Recruitment.
👉 Read the full Bloomberg Linea article here.
🧐 ANALYSIS
What are the Top Colombian FinTechs according to their AppStore and Playstore score?
🥇Leading the list are Treinta and Nequi! Both have an exceptional 4.7 rating.
👉 See the all the FinTechs listed on Latam Fintech Hub's article written by Nicolas Rueda here.
👨💻 BLOG
Latin American and the Caribbean countries are undergoing profound financial transformation.
💡INSIGHTS
Mexico’s 101 Fastest Growing FinTech Startups.
At Fintech Energy they track over 200,000 fintech startups and over 1,000,000 people who hold key positions in these companies.
They use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and organisations we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
👉 Read the full Fintech Energy list here.
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
☕️ REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ The Banker, part of the Financial Times Group, has selected BBVA as the best digital bank in Europe and Latin America in its Innovation in Digital Banking Awards. Link here.
⭐️Data from CryptoCompare shows that the price of Bitcoin initially decreased at the start of last week, dropping from $22,000 to $21,000. Link here.
⭐️Klar announced it has acquired SOMOS, a company that designs credit risk models. Link here.
⭐️Galoy, the startup behind the Bitcoin Beach Wallet, announced that the company has raised $4 million from strategic investors to “advance bitcoin-native banking infrastructure.” Link here.
⭐️Central Bank of Honduras reaffirms position on digital assets as cryptocurrency grows in LatAm. Link here.
BRAZIL
Conta Simples has completed the acquisition of Hackr Ads, a platform for intelligence and management of online ads on the Internet, this is the first purchase after receiving a contribution of R$ 121 million, Series A. Link here.
The Brazilian government and the National Supplementary Health Agency have intended to launch a new platform for Open Health that promises to speed up portability between health plans, according to Valor Investe. Link here.
Three things you probably didn’t know about Brazil’s growing fintech sector. Most non-Brazilians know little about our banking system. Until recently, only three large private banks and one state-owned bank comprised nearly 100% of our banking market. Link here.
ARGENTINA
MercadoLibre posted record revenues of $2.6 billion for second quarter, an increase of 56% year-on-year, and surpassing analysts expectations of $2.5 billion. The regional e-commerce giant beat forecasts for all key metrics. Analysts expected a gross margin of 45.9%, but the company posted a 49% gross margin for the second quarter. Link here.
Binance and Mastercard announce the launch of Binance Card in Argentina to bridge the gap between cryptocurrencies and everyday purchases. Link here.
COLOMBIA
Nu Colombia, a subsidiary of Nubank, confirms that the Financial Superintendence of Colombia (SFC) formally approved its request to obtain the license to establish a Financing Company. Link here.
PUERTO RICO
Raincoat raised US$4.5 million in a seed round led by Anthemis. With the new round, the company will have around US$4,650 in funding. Link here.
MEXICO
Klar announced it has acquired SOMOS, a company that designs credit risk models. Through this deal, Klar wants to increase its decision-making capacity. This will help them reduce risks and improve the customer experience. Link here.
The Spanish Bnext pauses its adventure to "revolutionize banking" in Mexico, after regulatory complications. Since last July 24, all the accounts that were opened through this platform were disabled. Link here.
The BNPL fintech Kontempo has raised over $30M in a seed round led by Portage. The funding comprised $6.5M in equity and $25M in debt. Other participants in this round were Scor P&C Ventures, Upper90, Asymmetric Capital Partners, Tectonic Ventures, and Ignia. Link here.
Goldman Sachs lends $150 Million to mexican startup Clara. Financing to boost lending operations, geographical expansion. Link here.
CHILE
BICECORP is expanding its ecosystem of financial solutions with the launch of buys connect, a company that provides banking products to third parties through application programming interface is, model known as banking as a service (BaaS). Link here.