This week, we explore the growth of alternative sources of financing for startups in the region in the face of the equity-based capital drought. Also, Argentina’s Banco Galicia teams up with the Alprestamo marketplace to offer digital loans, and a new US$100 million fund for LatAm fintechs takes shape.
Read the main note here: Startups borrow to maintain growth
#Strategic Plays
Banco Galicia joins forces with Alprestamo in Argentina
Banco Galicia forged a partnership with the Alprestamo credit marketplace to offer digital loans of up to ARS$5 million (US$19,261), with preferential interest rates. Digital lending has seen a pick up in Argentina of late.
PedidosYa offers SME loans
The food delivery app has launched “PedidosYa Creditos,” a digital financing program aimed at small and medium sized companies that do business using the platform in Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Peru. The company aims to finance some 60,000 businesses.
Besides…
- In Mexico, Canadian fintech Nuvei struck a deal with ride-hailing app inDrive to become a payment provider for its drivers.
- Israeli fintech TipRanks, which offers its stock market analysis to clients in Mexico and Brazil, plans to expand in LatAm.
- In Panama, fintech TAFI entered the market for enterprise management services with financial products such as credit cards.
#Investors
Iporanga readies US$100M fund
Iporanga Ventures, a Brazilian venture capital fund, opened its third investment fund, with the aim of amassing US$100 million for investment in fintechs in the region. The company expects to invest primarily in embedded finance solutions.
Torqi raises US$12.3M in Brazil
Brazilian agribusiness logistics fintech Torqi raised BRL$60 million (US$12.3 million) in an investment round led by Galapagos Capital. The company plans to use the proceeds for lending to the cargo transportation sector.
Chile’s Shinkansen raises US$3M
Chilean fintech Shinkansen raised US$3 million in a seed round led by ALLVP. The startup, which offers a solution for banks and other fintechs to streamline money transfers, plans to use the proceeds to consolidate its operations in Chile and expand into other Latin American markets, including Peru.
#People
Binance appoints VP for LatAm
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, appointed Min Lin as regional vice president for Latin America. Lin joined Binance in 2021 as head of business development and was previously CEO of Goldman Sachs’s global markets division in Hong Kong.
#iupanaExclusive
Banco Bci opened the doors of its innovation laboratory to iupana and revealed which technologies it is exploring to develop banking services for the next decade. The Chilean bank says it’s testing new tools that use artificial intelligence and synthetic avatars in order to assess their feasibility in banking.
- The lab is exploring digital twin technologies and the combination of the Internet of Things with artificial intelligence.
- The division is used by Bci to test disruptive technologies and gauge whether they have a real use within banking.
- Blockchain applications have yet to yield profitable models for the financial industry.
Read all the details of Bci’s innovation plans in this week’s iupanaExclusive.