Fintech in Latin America is booming! On the second quarter of 2021, fintechs in the region raised over US$ 3 billion. This report analyzes the fintech investments in the region with the goal of shedding light on the fintech environment in the region and its huge potential.

1. Thiago Paiva
FINTECHMARKETINLATINAMERICA2021Q2:
Investmentanddeals
By Thiago Paiva

2. Thiago Paiva
1. Intro
2. The Author
3. Fintech Ecosystem
4. Investments
○ Total Investments in the Region
○ Investments per Country
○ Investments per Month
○ Investments per Industry Segment
○ Main Investments Rounds
○ Debt Financing Deals
5. Merger & Acquisitions
6. Final Thoughts
7. Resources
○ Fintech Radars
Index

3. Thiago Paiva
Intro
First of all, thanks for reading this material! My name is Thiago Paiva and I'm a fintech entrepreneur, investor,
and columnist. I've been working with startups and innovation for the past 10 years in Latin America, US, and
Singapore.
I have invested and accelerated more than 60 startups from which more than 20 were fintech startups from 8
different countries while working at Wayra in Brazil and Startupbootcamp Fintech in Mexico.
Since I started to invest in fintechs, in 2013, the market radically changed. In less than 8 years, we saw the birth
of the first fintech unicorns in the region, as well as IPOs from Stone (NASDAQ) and Pagseguro (NYSE) in the US.
Now Latin America is one of the hottest places worldwide for fintech investments and Nubank is the most
valuable neobank in the world!
My goal with my reports has always be to shed light to the region as it was undervalued; now things has turned
and my goal is to support the region with relevant information to interested investors and entrepreneurs.
Finally, if you like this material, please, share it!
Thiago Oliveira de Paiva

4. Thiago Paiva
The Author I'm a fintech entrepreneur, investor, and columnist! I have been actively engaged
in the Latin American ecosystem since 2010. During this period, I have evaluated
2,600+ and invested in 60+ startups from 9 different countries while working at
Wayra Brazil and Startupbootcamp Fintech Mexico. I studied Fintech at MIT and
Business with Concentration in Finance at UCLA.
I write about fintech in Latin America in international and regional publications
and also develop reports analyzing the ecosystem.
I'm currently a Product Manager at Oyster Financial, bringing access to financial
products to SMSs in Latin America.

5. Thiago Paiva
FINTECH ECOSYSTEM

6. Thiago Paiva
Since Nubank showed the potential of the fintech market in the region, the Latin American ecosystem has
been growing at a breakneck speed.
We have seen world-class VCs not only investing in the region but also creating teams and funds focused on
the region (Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, SoftBank, and more). Local VCs such as Kaszek and
Monashees are collecting unicorns and raising even larger funds.
Even so, the region still has half of its population as unbanked with the marked still controlled by large
financial institutions oligopolies; however, that scenario is changing fast as neobanks and credit fintechs are
challenging those oligopolies while onboarding population outside the financial system.
The regulators on the region are becoming more and more welcoming to fintechs to break those oligopolies
and improve access to the financial system.
In the region, Brazil is now a quite mature fintech ecosystem with many unicorns and some IPOs while
Mexico consolidating itself with its first unicorns. Colombia is also evolving fast following similar path.
Fintech Ecosystem in Latin America

7. Thiago Paiva
200 Updated Apr/20
441 Updated Mar/20
Number of Fintechs per Country
Source: Fintech Radars from Finnovista and Fintechlab Fintech Radar Brazil
Even though data from some countries are not up to
date, Brazil (771) and Mexico (441) remains the two
strongest fintech ecosystems in the region.
Colombia has secured third place in the region but
other countries are also moving to expand their
fintech ecosystem.
771 Updated Aug/20
110 Updated Mar/18
179 Updated May/21

8. Thiago Paiva
Highlighted Fintechs in the Region

9. Thiago Paiva
Fintech Adoption
Source: https://fintechauscensus.ey.com/2019/Documents/ey-global-fintech-adoption-index-2019.pdf
Consumer Fintech Adoption Index - EY
Average
64%
Latin America is one of the regions with fastest
fintech adoption, according to EY Consumer
Adoption Index 2019.
It had 3 countries in the Top 10 (Colombia, Peru,
and Mexico) and all of the largest economies
above the average, 64%, of the 27 researched
countries.

10. Thiago Paiva
TOP 15 Most Funded Fintechs
● BR - Nubank (US$ 2.3B): The largest neobank outside of China with more than 30M customers, worthing US$ 30 billion;
● BR - Loft (US$ 788M): Is a proptech that facilitates the purchase and sale of properties;
● BR - Creditas (US$ 569M): A secured online loan to consumers;
● BR - Quinto Andar (US$ 635.3M): An unicorn proptech that facilitates the rent of properties by offering financial services;
● BR - Ebanx (US$ 460M): A payment solution for e-commerce
● BR - Neon (US$ 420.3M): A neobank with personal and business account;
● MX - Clip (US$ 397.4M): A card payment provider similar to Square;
● MX - Bitso (US$ 378.4M): A cryptocurrency exchange;
● BR - C6 Bank (US$ 269.1M): A neobank for personal accounts
● MX - Konfio (US$ 269M): An unsecured online loans to SMEs;
● AR - Ualá (US$ 194M): Neobank for personal accounts;
● BR - CloudWalk (US$ 195.1M): A merchant acquirer solution
● BR - Conductor (US$ 150M): Is a banking-as-a-service infrastructure provider;
● MX - AlphaCredit (US$ 125M): A digital credit provider for individuals and SMEs;
● BR - Acesso Digital (US$ 117.6M): A KYC provider using facial recognition and biometrics
Source: Crunchbase, startup press releases, and proprietary data
* Only equity deals were considered

11. Thiago Paiva
Listed Fintechs
Source: public data and proprietary data
NYSE:PAGS
US$ 18.54 billion (Jul 21)
NASDAQ:STNE
US$ 21.17 billion (Jul 21)
NASDAQ:DLO
US$ 14.12 billion (Jul 21)
NASDAQ:XP
US$ 22.8 billion (Jul 21)
Fintechs Preparing to IPO
Filed in NASDAQ Planned for next few months Rumored to happen by end of 2021 or
early 2022

12. Thiago Paiva
Fintech Unicorns
Source: proprietary data
Latin America has currently 10 fintech unicorns (excluding the 4 public listed), with 6 of them achieving
the US$ 1B+ mark in the past 18 months.
US$ 2B
US$ 30B US$ 4B
US$ 2.9B
US$ 2B
US$ 2.17B US$ 1.75B
US$ 1.42B
Not Disclosed Not Disclosed

13. Thiago Paiva
INVESTMENTS

14. Thiago Paiva
Since 2011, venture capital investment
in Latin America has boomed,
achieving 52% average compound
annual growth until 2021H1. In 2020,
the region raised in total US$ 5.4B but
just in the first half of 2021 it already
reached US$ 9.3B in a total of 396 deals.
In just the first two quarters of 2021,
fintechs in the region raised a total of
US$ 4.9 B, which is close to 50% of all
venture capital raised..
Investments in Latin America
Source: Data from LAVCA (2011-2018), Crunchbase (2019), CB Insights (2020-2021), and proprietary data

15. Thiago Paiva
Total Investments in the Region
Latin American fintechs raised a total of US$ 3.21 B (US$ 3.1 B in equity and US$ 125 M in debt) in 45 deals in
the second quarter of 2021.
Source: proprietary data from deals

16. Thiago Paiva
Number of Equity Investments per Country
Source: proprietary data from deals
In the second quarter, Brazil is keeping
the lead in investments in the region with
51.2% of all the deals in the region, a small
increase from previous quarter.
Mexico (24.4%) has established itself as
the second market in the region while
Chile (9.8%) took the place of Colombia as
the third market for this quarter

17. Thiago Paiva
Volume of Equity Investments per Country
Considering the volume of investments,
the Brazilian fintechs still dominate with
a 65.4% of all the disclosed investments in
the region down from 85.8%.
The reason it isn't a decrease of
investment in the country in this quarter,
actually, Brazil doubled the volume; even
so, Mexico had an impressive 6x increase
compared to the previous quarter, closing
the gap.
Source: proprietary data

18. Thiago Paiva
Volume of Investments: Brazil and Mexico
Source: proprietary data
Quarterly fintech investment in Brazil grew 6.4x in the past 18 months while Mexico 4.9x, showing
the opportunity in the region. Definitely, this quarter was an impressive one for Mexican fintechs, the
question is whether it will be able to keep this growth pace.

19. Thiago Paiva
Volume of Equity Investments per Month
The number of deals were similar across the 3 months of the quarter; however June saw an
impressive amount of money (US$ 1.8B) invested, with 42% more than the sum of April and May.
Source: proprietary data

20. Thiago Paiva
Equity Investment by Industry Segment
In this second quarter, Payments & Remittances took the lead from Digital Banking to become the segment
with most invested volume, US$ 1.138 B, and number of investments, 8 deals. Digital Banking kept the second
place in volume with US$ 784.9 M and Mortgage and Real Estate in third with US$ 408 M. An emerging
segment is Cryptocurrency & DeFi with US$ 276 M raised.
Source: proprietary data

21. Thiago Paiva
TOP 5 Investment Rounds
Source: proprietary data
This year, even though we started with some gigantic rounds the pace didn't slow down, actually it accelerated
with even more impressive rounds. Nubank raised an astonish US$ 750M from Berkshire Hathaway. Not less
impressive are the rounds from Ebanx and QuintoAndar with US$ 430M and US$ 300M, respectively. Mexico is
also starting to have its own mega rounds, with Bitso and Clip raising US$ 250M each and rising to unicorn status.

22. Thiago Paiva
Round Sizes
Source: proprietary data
As many international investors are starting to invest in the region and local investors raise larger funds,
the average ticket size is increasing quite fast. Seed rounds this quarter had an average ticket of US$
4.4M while Series A reached US$ 21.1M. Series B and C are at US$ 70.7M and US$ 114.3M, respectively.

23. Thiago Paiva
TOP 5 Deals - Share of Equity Investments
Source: proprietary data
As we have consistent seem, the total amount raised on the top rounds outweigh all the other
investments. This quarter, the TOP 5 equity rounds raised 64.2% of the total equity raised.

24. Thiago Paiva
Debt Financing Deals
On the debt side, Colombia and Mexico led this quarter with US$ 50 M each and Brazil in behind with US$
25 M. In total, there were only 4 disclosed debt rounds raised in a total of US$ 125 M.
Source: proprietary data

25. Thiago Paiva
Merger & Acquisitions

26. Thiago Paiva
In the first second of 2021, we saw 7 M&A deals in the region,
compared to 5 on the first one. From those 5 deals in Brazil,
one in Argentina and another in Chile.
The highlight here is:
● The acquisition of Acceso Banco by the Meliuz
(CASH3:B3) by US$ 61.5 M.
Merger & Acquisitions
Source: proprietary data

27. Thiago Paiva
FINAL THOUGHTS

28. Thiago Paiva
Final Thoughts
Latin America is the new black! It is impressive how much interest the region is attracting now, so much money available
from national and international investors. This is making rounds sizes to increase at fast pace as well as the valuations.
With more money, the market attracts more talent which creates a virtuous cycle. We're seeing more and more
director/C-Level of large companies taking positions on fintechs as well as expats returning to their home country to join
fintechs or found ones.
And there is no sign of slowing down, actually, investors are discovering that Latin America is more than just Brazil;
Mexican fintechs are starting to raise Series B and C rounds and the born of its first few fintech unicorns will just bring more
capital. Also, the IPO of D-Local proved that it is possible to create successful companies and exits in the region outside of
Brazil.
With so much capital and talent available, we should expect fintechs to be more aggressive to expand regionally to become
the regional player on their markets. And we should not only expect more Brazilian fintechs entering other countries, but
also fintechs from other countries, especially Mexico, entering the Brazilian market.
Exciting times are ahead of us!
Thiago Oliveira de Paiva

29. Thiago Paiva
RESOURCES

30. Thiago Paiva
Materials by the Author
● Report:
○ Fintech Investment Report Latin America 2019
○ Fintech Investment Report Latin America 2020
○ Banking and Fintech Market in Latin America 2019
○ Fintech Investment Report Latin America 1H2019
○ Fintech Investment Report Latin America 3Q2019
○ Fintech Market in Singapore 2018
● Articles:
○ Techcrunch - The Emergence of Super Apps in Latin America
○ Techcrunch - The Battle to Become the Mexican Nubank Just Started
○ Techcrunch - A Look at Latin America's Emerging Fintech Trends
○ LatamList - Meet the Candidate to Become the Mexican Nubank

31. Thiago Paiva
Resources
● Andreessen Horowitz - Latin America Fintech
● Latin America Digital Transformation Report 2020
● LAVCA Report - Latin America Startup Heatmap
● GSMA Intelligence Report - The Mobile Economy Latin America and the caribbean 2018
● Finnovista Fintech Radar Mexico 2020
● Fintechlab Fintech Radar Brazil 2020
● Finnovista Fintech Radar Colombia 2019
● Finnovista Fintech Radar Argentina 2018
● Finnovista Fintech Radar Chile 2019
● ALLVP - Early Stage VCs Active in Latin America
● Crunchbase
● EY Fintech Adoption Index 2019

32. Thiago Paiva
Fintech Radar - Mexico
Source: Finnovista Fintech Radar Mexico 2020

33. Thiago Paiva
Source: Fintechlab Fintech Radar Brazil 2020
Fintech Radar - Brazil

34. Thiago Paiva
Fintech Radar - Colombia
Source: Finnovista Fintech Radar Colombia 2020

35. Thiago Paiva
Fintech Radar - Argentina
Source: Finnovista Fintech Radar Argentina 2018

36. Thiago Paiva
Fintech Radar - Chile
Source: Finnovista Fintech Radar Chile 2021

37. Thiago Paiva
THANKSFORREADING!
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