REPORT
👀 NEWS HIGHLIGHT
Y Combinator (YC), the Silicon Valley incubator, has listed stablecoin finance as a category in its new and updated list of areas it would like to deploy funds in, according to its request for startups (RFS) list released last week.
The RFS is a YC tradition, the blog said, one that goes back to 2009 offering up ideas the incubator wants to see made real. It helps startups understand which areas YC would like to invest in.
📰 ARTICLE
NOW, ON TO THE SUMMARY OF LAST WEEK'S NEWS
☕️ REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
⭐️ Payment orchestration platform market to reach $4.83 billion by 2032.
⭐️ SoyYo joins Redeban to facilitate payments and strengthen transactional security in Colombia.
⭐️Network tokenization, essential to Apple Pay, is undergoing significant changes.
⭐️ Mind blowing numbers from Brazil🇧🇷: Over 42 Billion Pix transactions in 2023.
BRAZIL
Stark Bank, one of the few Latin America startups to receive funding from Jeff Bezos’ family office, is generating profits from its business of helping companies handle payments, while leaving cash raised from its funding rounds nearly untouched.
COLOMBIA
Colombian payments startup Bold raises $50m. The startup boasts more than 150,000 monthly active merchants as it works to foster financial inclusion through the democratisation of Colombia’s digital economy.
Ualá became a financial refuge for more than 90,000 Venezuelans in Colombia. The fintech has also launched in the country Ualá Biz, a business vertical that aims to provide opportunities to small entrepreneurs without fixed costs.
Nuvei Launches Direct Local Acquiring In Colombia. Nuvei is the first global payments company to offer direct local acquiring in Colombia, enabling local and international partners to accept card payments from their customers in the country.
MEXICO
FitBank, the Brazilian Banking as a Service platform, consolidates operations in Mexico. At the end of last year it obtained its first revenues in Mexico and in the next few weeks it should announce its official entry into Guatemala.
Mexican neobank Hey Banco’s split from Banregio due for 2025. Hey Banco’s endeavour to operate as a standalone entity gained further traction in July 2023, when it landed a banking licence with the CNBV in Mexico.
CHILE
Chilean Paytech Global66 introduced a new feature in its "Global66 Smart Card" to make payments abroad. The Global66 Smart Card, an evolution of the Global66 Card, allows users to conduct transactions in up to eight different currencies.