Latin America has always been a soft target for Fintech investors and despite the uncertainty during the Covid-19 period, investors were still signing deals for several LatAm startups. As Latin America continues to be the focus of global investors, Fintech startups from LatAm have been able to weather the turbulences caused by the covid-19 pandemic, thanks to renewed digital technologies.
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In the first half of 2020 alone, the LatAm startups were able to raise US $525M by signing 74 deals showcasing the interest of the investors despite the uncertainty of the global economy. Fundraising was not easy and there were a lot of hypothesis as nobody knew how the business would turn out.
FinTech startups have played a very important role in raising the Latin American economy. Despite the global economy turbulence, the investments were conditioned and funds were raised to nurture and bloom Fintech Startups:
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Afluenta
Based out of Argentina, the total funding of this Fintech platform stands at $25.5 M. Affluenta is a leading company for consumer and SME loans. The advantage of dealing with them is that they offer credits and investments between people and there is no role of the bank in between. As per certain reports, the company has produced an average annual returns of 21.6% for its investors.
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Albo
Albo is one of the leading Mexican neobanks, has already raised funding of around $27.1M. This fintech startup is a Mastercard debit card offering personal finance opportunities to let people easily spend, save and invest further. With this neobank app, new account opening is done within minutes.
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Clip
Clip is another Mexican Fintech startup which is a debit and credit card reader in itself. With such an app by a business’s side, the business owners can accept card payments easily. This app simplifies mobile payments converting the mobile devices into a bank terminal. The approximate funding of the company stands at $160M and the total valuation stands at $350M-$400M.
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Rappi
Rappi is one of the well-funded Fintech start-ups of LatAm with more than $1.4B. Located in Columbia, Rappi has acquired the Mexican Fintech Payit in 2019, which was the first unicorn start-up of the region. After this acquisition, the services and features of Rappi saw huge expansions and a trail of developments.
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NuBank
The Brazil based challenger bank has disclosed its funding of $1.1 B making it one of the most well-funded start-ups of Latin America. NuBank is a high-end technology-driven finance startup and the mobile only bank has truly transformed and redefined financial services in Brazil. NuBank is one such bank offering a no-fee credit card, which is very well managed through a mobile app along with the digital account called “NuConta”.
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OmniBank
Based out of Columbia, the disclosed funding for the Fintech startup stands at $201.6M. OmniBank was started to solve the problems of small businesses, which fail due to lack of financing. The AI based analytics of OmniBank utilized big data to perform the risk analysis of a business and suggest a feasible line of credit to businesses who were not able to procure finances from other conventional methods.
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Bankingly
Bankingly has stood out as a digital banking software provider for every financial institution. Its services are future-proof and it offers solutions at the right time and right place. Businesses can interact with their customers irrespective of the geographical as well as the difference in devices used. Based out of Uruguay, the disclosed funding is $10M.
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Uala
Located in Argentina with a disclosed funding of $194M, Uala is a challenger bank linked to a Mastercard that allows the users to make the payments without using the physical card in Argentina and abroad as well.
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As the region of Latin America blooms with Fintech startups, it is surprising to know that 70% of the population is still unbanked. It will be interesting to see what’s next in the future for the Fintech startups of LatAm.
