MVO BLOG
REPORT
Q1 2022 Open Banking Trends: 175% annual growth rate, regulations move to data sharing:
👉 Read the full Platformable article by Phuong Pham & Spencer Perkins here.
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Nubank is still the most downloaded neobank application in Brazil. It was downloaded 3.2 million times in January, according to the Bank of America (BofA) latest report.
According to the survey, Nubank concentrated 15% of all 22.5 million downloads of banking applications and digital wallets in Brazil in the period, followed by Bitz, Bradesco, and PicPay. In December, total downloads of digital banking apps reached 23.5 million, according to the survey.
In addition, Nubank, PagBank, and Pan had the highest increase in active users (1.8 million, 1.5 million, and 1.3 million, respectively). At the other end, iti, owned by Itaú Unibanco, was the main loser of active users (a drop of 1 million compared to December).
👉 Read the full Labs News article here.
😎 SPONSORED CONTENT
PayRetailers is your payment processor in Latin America. With PayRetailers grow your business in emerging markets, through a network of local payment methods that allow you to accept payments, send payouts and settle funds, regardless of the country you operate in.
📊 INFOGRAPHIC
This rapid growth of Apple Pay can be attributed to the company’s strategic partnerships and investments in both domestic and global markets.
Throughout the years, Apple has employed a clever ‘acquihire’ strategy, where it has focused on acquiring small firms employing a limited number of people. The company’s quiet investment approach seldom involves bankers, which justifies a lot of the deals going under the radar. There is a decent chance of you viewing this post from an Apple device which confirms how successful Apple has been in expanding its iEcosystem throughout the years, by implementing a clever amalgamation of innovation, investment, and marketing strategies.
👉 Read the full Whitesight story here.
📰 ARTICLE
BBVA has reached an agreement to invest $300 million (about €263 million¹) in Neon, a Brazilian digital bank founded in 2016 that aims to improve access to financial services for individuals, self-employed and small businesses in its country.
Neon has 15 million registered accounts. The investment takes place in a context of unprecedented technological disruption, with solid growth of digital and innovative models, particularly in financial services.
In addition to a clear commitment to innovation, this investment allows BBVA to gain exposure to retail banking in Brazil, a market with one of the highest potential in the world.
With this new investment, BBVA acquires a 21.7 percent² stake in Neon. The Group already held a stake since 2018 through its venture capital fund Propel. Following this transaction, BBVA’s stake will total 29.7 percent³ of Neon.
👉 Read the full BBVA press release here.
💡INSIGHTS
H Twenty Capital (H20) co-founders Daniel Lloreda and Mauricio Porras recall getting into LATAM in 2018, a time Lloreda considered pretty early to be the investment space.
Some of H20’s early investments from that fund went into companies like Tül, a construction material e-commerce marketplace that is now valued at $800 million after raising a $181 million Series B round in January. It also invested in Brazilian social grocery commerce company Favo, which raised a $26.5 million Series A last October.
👉 Read the full Techcrunch article written by Christine Hall here.
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NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
☕️ REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ German digital bank N26 is partnering with GFAI, a financial and career planning platform, in another move to position itself as a fintech that focuses on customers' financial health. Link here.
⭐️ Mundi, a financial services platform for cross-border trade, announced it has raised $16 million in a Series A funding round led by Union Square Ventures. Link here.
⭐️ Trace Finance announced a $4.3 million Seed round. Link here.
⭐️ São Paulo-based Banco Itaú International has partnered with US paytech Rêv to release a multi-currency digital wallet for its international private banking customers. Link here.
⭐️ Bitso, a major Latin American cryptocurrency exchange, and El Salvador’s crypto wallet assistant firm, has announced its formal launch in Colombia. Link here.
⭐️ emerchantpay, a leading global payment service provider, now provides local payments acceptance for cross-border merchants and partners in eight Latin America countries. Link here.
BRAZIL
Brazilian PayHop nabs BRL 11.5 million to scale up a BNPL solution that uses card receivables as collateral. With only seven months, PayHop secured an investment round led by credit bureau Serasa Experian to boost a Buy Now Pay Later solution focused on SMBs.
PayHop built a platform to serve both SMBs and suppliers, through which the retailer can use its card receivables as collateral and thus access credit with suppliers, reducing the costs of anticipation with banks or acquires. To reach these retailers, PayHop partners with suppliers, who offer the fintech solution as a payment option for those customers who, for many different reasons, are not able to make an installment purchase.
Founded by Eduardo Rossi and Arthur Fontana, CEO and CTO of the fintech, respectively, PayHop has benefited from a recent change undertaken by Brazil‘s Central Bank in the rules for operating the registration and trading of card receivables.
👉 Read the full Labs News article here.
ECUADOR
AltScore joins Techstars Boulder 2022 Winter Program and raised a $400k Pre-Seed Round
The Ecuadorean-born company joined TechStars Boulder in the 2022 Winter Program. Techstars Boulder focuses on getting founders to product-market-fit faster so their start-ups are ready to scale ASAP.
In the last year, AltScore raised over 400k in a Pre-Seed round led by Kamay Ventures, TechStars, BuenTrip Ventures, and AMP Community.
Since they met in 2020 founders Andres Perez Romo Leroux, CEO, and Mateo Semerene, COO, have wanted to solve the lack of financial inclusion in LatAm. According to the World Bank, there’s a $1.8 trillion dollar lending gap in the region.
👉 Read more here.
COLOMBIA
Mexican investment platform Flink will begin operating in Colombia in June or July as part of its Latin America expansion plan, Chief Executive Sergio Jimenez said on Thursday.
The platform, which enables subscribers to invest in fractions of shares of U.S. listed companies, will also add Mexican debt instruments, like state bonds, to diversify its investment portfolio, Jimenez said.
"The average ticket for newcomers is at $1 or $2, but it reaches $32 in the fourth month. People get confident when they understand the market," said Jimenez.
The company decided to launch the platform with U.S.-listed companies to give clients "the opportunity to invest in fractional shares." The enterprises abroad are more attractive to customers, Jimenez said.
👉 Read the full Investing.com article written by Valentine Hilaire here.
MEXICO
delt.ai announces it is expected to raise the equivalent of $25M in debt financing through TrueFi, a DeFi lending platform designed by TrustToken, to fund its corporate credit lines in 2022.
The financing announcement marks the first-of-its-kind pure crypto debt financing of a financial startup in Latin America.
delt.ai offers intelligent corporate credit lines and a spend management platform to businesses operating in Mexico.
Beginning this month, all delt.ai corporate credit lines will be issued from capital directly backed by stablecoins originated on TrueFi, and powered by the transparency and borderless accessibility of blockchain technology.
“We believe using capital from a DeFi (decentralized finance) source like TrueFi will unlock new financial opportunities for not only our customers but all business owners in Mexico, and beyond.
👉 Read the full article here.
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Volt.io, the leading open payments gateway, has hired Nathan Marion as General Manager LATAM, to lead its strategic expansion in Latin America (LATAM). This follows the fintech’s innovative integration of Brazil’s instant payments system, Pix.
Marion joins from digital commerce platform VTEX. There, in his role as VP Growth Enablement, he helped the firm grow from a little-known Brazilian fintech to a New York Stock Exchange-listed unicorn serving more than 2,500 online stores.
Read the full Finextra article here.
OPPORTUNITIES
The growth rate of hiring across Latin America for positions like software engineer and account executive has increased by 286% in the second half of 2021, more than in any other region in the world, according to a report focused on tech and remote work by global hiring and payroll company Deel Inc.
Most of the new hires are located in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, but competitive wages are also making companies take a closer look at Peru, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.
The jump in hires comes as Latin American startups received a record $15 billion in funding last year, more than triple the previous record.
The growth in regional unicorns -- startups valued at $1 billion or more -- hiring within the region is part of the reason for the increase in employment, according to Pepe Villatoro, Deel’s regional head of expansion.
👉 Read the full Bloomberg article here.
If you are a fintech startup and have over 100 questions send me an email, maybe I can answer a few.