Booming Fintechs in LATAM

February 8, 2023
ANA LUIZA MAGALHÃES

Latin America has the largest profit pools for the banking sector in the world. While the region concentrated most of finance transactions in the same few traditional financial players, the fintechs joined the game  – and suddenly became the favourite way to access financial services for a large part of the population.

The second quarter of 2021 registered a record in fintech investments, counting $30,8 billion in VC, topping the last quarter in 30%, with South America leading in funding (CB Insights). The high fintech investments in the region are a signal of how well-positioned are fintech businesses in LATAM, showing no signs of slowing down.

How innovation works

The fintechs started a revolution in the financial industry, offering services that broaden the access of people to banking services, such as digital transactions, insurance and investments.

The pandemic effect has accelerated the rise of fintechs, bringing the need for digital payment and online transactions. Many people became adept of digital financial solutions during the COVID-19 crisis.

Considering 80% of transactions in LATAM are cash-based and the region has one of the highest rates of unbanked population in the globe, the large access to fintech solutions and the high quality of customer experience offered in the services explain the exponential growth of fintechs in the region.

Fintechs were successful in translating the limitations of traditional banking sectors into accessible and less bureaucratic solutions for all kinds of customers.

Trends in the fintech market

Get to know which are the main trends that are rocking the financial services industry:

Payments innovation

The most demanded service from fintechs is being able to perform transactions through the smartphone, from wherever a person is.

The payment innovations in Fintechs make not only contactless shopping easier, but also provides financial access to a large part of the LATAM population who couldn’t have a bank account

New credit solutions are also trending, specially the Buy Now, Pay Later ones (BNPL), forcing a movement of traditional banking institutions in the credit market too.

Open banking for customer experience

The ability to build new, personalized products based on customer’s insights broadens the horizon for financial services.

Besides the regulations barriers vary from country to country, Open Banking allows fintechs to get data from financial institutions’ customers and use it to improve services and products.

Considering the fintech revolution is centered in the customer, Open Banking opens new possibilities for banking-fintech collaboration and improvements in the customer experience.

Investment in digital structure

Having a physical presence is not the focus for fintechs, they invest heavily in technology for strengthening their digital structure capabilities and potential instead.

From security to data-mining, fintechs have a huge demand for technology professionals to keep their systems operating perfectly, while keeping it safe from frauds and cybercrime and also keep building new features and innovations.

A strategy fintechs have been using is outsourcing projects to enhance their capability to develop new products in record time while cutting costs with staffing.

The strategy of fintechs in LATAM

Get to know how some of the largest funded fintechs are conducting their initiatives:

Nubank

The finance institution famous for the no-fee account and the excellent customer service is leading the way towards innovation applied to the customer experience and challenging top traditional banks.

Opening space for the large amount of unbanked population, the process of opening an account at Nubank is simple, only demanding the input of some documents and information. In many cases, the account approval happens in minutes.

The fintech’s digital structure lowers the costs and boosts scalability and speed. This is one of the factors that allows the institution to set the credit card rates 50% lower than the traditional banks in Brazil (CNN Business).

Picpay

The fintech has the mission to make payments become easy through accessibility and a simple, functional interface. Promising to make buying food in festivals or splitting bar bills easier, the app has gained the preference of the public.

Among the features, it allows online payments and transferences, in the debit and credit modalities. Also, there are no fees for personal accounts and users may get up to R$800 in a month.

One of the biggest strengths of Picpay is its database of users and their insights, that allow fintech and its clients to increment services and improve based on customer data. (Exame)

C6

With a chat-based account open system, C6 promises a smooth and quick experience. The fintech aims to transmit transparency to the customer, using accessible language in the contract and letting the customer know exactly which services are paid in the app.

The services offered include transactions and investments, including SMS transfers and easy toll payment.

One of the efforts to keep the customer happy is the team of “Special Operations”, that has the responsibility of solving the customer problem in a quick and efficient way.

Creditas

Aiming to build a solution for the almost 200% yearly credit fees of traditional banks, Creditas rearranged the value chain to be able to offer easy, cheap and quick credit.

The scale-up offers services of credit, loans and benefit cards for companies. The main focus is offering the lowest fees possible to whoever needs credit.

Creditas offers a warranty for loans, in which clients can use their assets to ensure there is no risk of default in payment.

Opportunities for talents

With so much space for innovation and the need to keep constantly updated and ahead of the market, fintechs are always looking for talents to complement their teams.

The institutions are interested not only in the hard skills of candidates, but also in the soft skills. It’s important to identify with the company’s values, know the market and own a creative mind.

The most in-demand profiles are:

  • Cybersecurity Specialists;
  • UX/UI Designers;
  • Blockchain Developers;
  • Artificial Intelligence Specialists;
  • Machine Learning Specialists;
  • Mobile App Developers;
  • Data Scientists;
  • Software Engineers;
  • Marketing Specialists.

Finding skilled professionals who meet these specialities may not be so simple. The most talented ones are disputed by the best companies.

If your company is having a hard time finding talents, contact us and in a short time we will deliver you a complete stack, ready to work.

Are you a talented person looking for an opportunity in the finest companies? Apply to our vacancies here and get ready for your next life-changing challenge.

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