{"id":4428,"date":"2018-03-20T22:58:29","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T22:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.finnovista.com\/?p=21174&lang=en"},"modified":"2020-04-20T04:58:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T04:58:32","slug":"fintech-fever-rising-in-latin-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.finnosummit.com\/en\/fintech-fever-rising-in-latin-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Fintech fever rising in Latin America"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A year ago around this time, I wrote that <\/span>Latin America was not immune to the Fintech fever<\/a><\/strong> conquering the universe, with Fintech startups small and large being founded across the region in such faraway cities like <\/span>Sao Paulo<\/a><\/strong> and Buenos Aires<\/a><\/strong>, and some not so far like <\/span>Bogota<\/a><\/strong> and <\/span>Mexico City<\/a><\/strong>.<\/strong> There is even a significant cohort of <\/span>foreign startups<\/a><\/strong> from places as far away as Asia and Europe expanding across Latin America. <\/span><\/p>\n

Preliminary data from research that is being performed by Finnovista on behalf of the Inter-American Development Bank suggests there are almost 40% more startups today in Latin America than there were one year ago. Activity continues to be concentrated in segments like payments, lending, and enterprise financial management, but new up and coming segments like insurance, identity, and blockchain are gaining traction, with startups operating in any of these new spaces setting themselves up to be the new darlings of Fintech in Latin America. <\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever the product, market technology or segment, this fervorous pace of growth is a strong indicator of the opportunity that abounds for Fintech in Latin America<\/strong>, a region where more than half of the population today still does not have access to formal financial services. Fintech presents itself as a panacea to help eradicate financial exclusion and bring economic growth and prosperity. Already we are starting to see policymakers in the region recognize the power of tech-based entrepreneurship in financial services in helping to solve one of the region\u2019s long-lingering problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

This past year has seen a tremendous amount of advancement and development to a Fintech ecosystem that is only today entering a level of maturity and sophistication comparable to the likes of London, Singapore or New York. Reflecting upon the different elements discussed at Lendit last year as key to the region\u2019s ecosystem development (collaboration, regulation, scale, investment, and talent) it\u2019s worth noting the following advancements that demonstrate how much the region has matured in just 12 months:<\/span><\/p>\n