The good times for Latin American fintechs are not only attracting the attention of investors looking for opportunities in the region. Entrepreneurs in this industry who decide to cross borders in search of opportunities are demonstrating that the potential of fintechs in the Americas can also have a global impact.
The Brazilian startup Bankuish is proof of this. The fintech that provides access to credit for gig economy workers (working on their own or for platforms), was selected as the winner of the 4YFN Awards competition at Mobible World Congress MWC 2025 in Barcelona, Spain.
During the final of the competition, Bankuish beat the other four finalist startups from the United Kingdom, Spain, Israel and the United States.
Its founder and CEO, José Vicente Fernandez, captivated the audience and the jury with his five-minute pitch in which he demonstrated how his solution is improving the lives of thousands of people performing specific tasks under the gig economy, which refers to sporadic or on-demand jobs, something quite common in the model of companies like Rappi, Uber, among many others.
Fintech is challenging traditional banking models with a more inclusive financial assessment. In an interview with 4YFN, Fernández, who graduated as an economist and worked as a credit risk expert in European banks, explained that his own experience allowed him to understand both the challenges and opportunities to make finance more inclusive.
Bankuish seeks to break the vicious cycle that prevents the self-employed from accessing loans. Through a mobile app, workers can connect their accounts from various platforms such as Uber, Rappi, Didi and many more, to generate their own free credit report. Based on the score, financial institutions will send credit offers that automatically appear in the app.
The platform also incorporates an AI-powered assistant that allows discovering ways to improve the score, such as taking mini courses or other tips. This motivates the user to unlock opportunities for offers.
After standing out among the five finalists, the Brazilian startup won a prize of 20,000 euros awarded by the GSMA Foundry, and took the title as the winner of the 4YFN25 Awards.
The jury was composed of experts from the investment sector, while the audience was made up of industry professionals, entrepreneurs, institutional representatives and the general public.
4YFN (Four Years From Now) is a competition of great importance within the startup ecosystem, boosting hundreds of promising companies from all over the world through connections, exposure and investment. Startups receive critical support early in their lifecycle and throughout their entire journey.
“By 2028, our goal is to be the credit agency of choice for most major banks when assessing the creditworthiness of the future of work. We currently serve the largest banks in LATAM, and are being successfully adopted in the U.S. We wish to serve most of the world’s major banks and insurance providers by 2028,” said Jose Fernandez, founder and CEO of Bankuish in an interview for the 4YFN blog.
A growing sector
Reports in recent years have evidenced and reaffirmed the importance of fintech as an engine to drive Latin America’s economy.
Due to the high rates of financial exclusion in the region, the companies that are transforming the sector have become the epicenter of the biggest technological disruption of the last decade, and there is a clear reason that goes far beyond a trend: the need for a structural transformation of traditional banking focused on solving real problems of the Latin American population.
Bankuish’s success in competing against startups from all over the world that are driving great innovations through technology is proof of the transformative power of fintechs in our region.
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