Latinia Corporate News (2019)

The year 2019 was marked by Latinia’s participation in various initiatives related to financial innovation and the development of the fintech ecosystem in Latin America.

This article highlights some of the most relevant corporate milestones of Latinia throughout 2019, including our participation in the Startupbootcamp FinTech scaling program, new investments in startups within the financial sector, and our perspective on the transition of banking toward cloud environments.

Latinia backs neobanks and invests in Flink

Latinia announced its investment in Flink, one of the neobanks leading the new generation of financial services aimed at millennials in Mexico. With this move, we sought to support the growth of new digital financial platforms in a market undergoing rapid transformation.

“Despite our clearly B2B profile, which accounts for 90% of our investments, we believe we cannot stay out of the demand surrounding neobanks in the region,” explained Oriol Ros, Corporate Development Director at Latinia and head of the company’s corporate fund.

Flink quickly consolidated its digital banking proposition, reaching 100,000 customers and recording more than 1,500 new sign ups per day. Its model is based on offering a mobile banking experience tailored to the expectations of new generations, with high levels of interaction within its application.

“We greatly value Latinia’s contribution, not only from a financial standpoint, which is essential for our growth, but also for its B2B experience in the financial industry and in the field of notifications,” said Sergio Jiménez, CEO of Flink.

The growth of neobanks in Latin America is supported by low banking penetration in the region and high smartphone adoption, conditions that are fostering the emergence of new digital financial services focused on younger users and more direct customer relationships.

The investment in Flink is part of our strategy to participate in the fintech ecosystem through acceleration programs and investments in startups within the financial sector in Latin America.

Latinia invests USD 300,000 in Lending as a Service fintech Prestanómico

Prestanómico, a company focused on offering more accessible and cost efficient credit through technology, announced the launch of its Series A round with a USD 300,000 investment from Latinia. This operation is part of the growth strategy of the Mexican fintech, which aims to consolidate its Lending as a Service model.

This model allows financial institutions and commercial companies to offer loans through a digital platform, managing the entire credit process in an agile and efficient way. Since its launch, Prestanómico has built a strong client portfolio, including some of the country’s leading consumer finance companies, as well as retail chains and service providers.

“Prestanómico has an innovative model that promises to accelerate the digital transformation of large institutions, from financial entities to retail chains, that seek to improve their consumer credit technology offering,” explained Oriol Ros, Global Marketing Director at Latinia.

Latinia’s investment is part of a broader funding round through which Prestanómico aims to raise 3 million dollars to drive its expansion and continue developing its technological platform.

“With Prestanómico’s credit as a service model, any company can offer loans to its customers in an agile way with the highest standards of reliability and security,” said Guillermo Gómez del Campo, CEO of Prestanómico.

The investment in Prestanómico adds to Latinia’s other stakes in fintech startups across the region, as part of a strategy focused on supporting initiatives that contribute to accelerating the digital transformation of financial services in Latin America.

Latinia participates in the selection of the top fintechs in Latin America for the Startupbootcamp scaling program

Latinia participated, together with the rest of the Startupbootcamp FinTech program partners, in the selection of the startups that would take part in the second generation of the scaling program led by Finnovista in Mexico City. The initiative brought together financial institutions, investors, and technology companies with the goal of identifying the fintechs with the highest growth potential in the region.

“Fintech talent in Latin America is extraordinarily diverse, both local and international, making the region one of the most interesting innovation hubs in the world,” said Oriol Ros, Marketing Director at Latinia and the company’s representative within the program.

The selection process took place during the so called Selection Days. Over two days, more than 100 applications from different countries were reviewed, of which eleven startups reached the final evaluation stage.

Five fintechs were ultimately selected to join the scaling program:

1. Mango Life (Mexico)
2. Mosabi (United States)
3. Prestanómico (Mexico)
4. Ualet (Colombia)

Vexi (Mexico)These companies entered an intensive six month program aimed at accelerating their growth, developing their business models, and preparing for future funding rounds.

“The success of the fintech ecosystem depends on standardizing innovation and growth methodologies that allow entrepreneurs to scale their projects more quickly,” explained Christine Chang, Director of the Startupbootcamp scaling program.

At the end of the program, the startups presented their projects during Demo Day to more than 400 investors and industry experts, with the goal of securing funding and establishing new strategic partnerships within the financial sector.

Latinia aims to support banks in their journey to the cloud

Latinia shared its vision on the evolution of banking toward cloud environments, a process we consider inevitable but one that will not occur uniformly across all financial institutions. We believe that cloud adoption should be approached as a gradual transition, adapted to the technological and organizational context of each bank.

“Cloud is not a single truth or a final destination, but a journey at different speeds, where we must be sensitive and adapt our offering to the transition each financial institution decides to undertake,” explained Oriol Ros, Marketing Director at Latinia.

In this process, many institutions will not move directly to fully cloud native environments, but will go through intermediate stages where different technological models coexist. These hybrid phases allow banks to progress toward the cloud while maintaining the stability of their legacy systems.

“Before reaching a 100% cloud environment, the client will go through hybrid stages where they will prioritize having software compatible with cloud-ready scenarios,” added Ros.

With this approach, Latinia aims to offer different deployment models of its software to adapt to each client’s needs. In this way, on-premises versions continue to coexist with cloud-ready solutions and developments designed for cloud native environments.

Our goal is to support financial institutions throughout this process, ensuring the operational continuity of their systems and allowing each organization to set the pace of its own technological transition.