Contxto – Fintechs continue to bring flexibility to the financial system of Latin America and investors are fueling the change.
Today (22), Movile announced it led a US$11.4 million round for Brazilian fintech Zoop.
The B2B startup will use the investment to speed up its ability to deploy its digital payment, banking, and credit solutions.
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Movile remains mobile in the ecosystem
As fintech adoption unfolds in Latin America, Movile—who’d previously invested in Zoop—wants to ensure its portfolio company stays ahead of the curve.
“There is an immense opportunity in the years ahead to improve financial services and enable broader access for businesses of all sizes and we want to ensure we are at the forefront of the transformation,” says Patrick Hruby, CEO at Movile.
Likewise, it sees major market potential in the small and medium-sized companies.
So with its eye on the prize, Movile has been busy the last couple of months working with Zoop and its other company MovilePay to connect partnering restaurants on the iFood platform with financial services.
Rightly so, through its investments, Movile has an ever-growing presence in the startup scene of Latam. For one, it led a round for logistics startup, Mensajeros Urbanos last July. This startup has in turn been organizing a learning program for small business owners in Colombia to employ digital strategies.
Knowing Movile, it probably gave Mensajeros Urbanos a nudge towards promoting digital payments and channeling entrepreneurs towards the solutions MovilePay and Zoop offer.
And in other Movile-related events, its portfolio company iFood is taking on food delivery giant, Rappi in Colombia. By partnering with Domicilios.com, iFood/Movile hopes to give the orange-colored unicorn a run for its money on home turf.
The more the merrier with Zoop
Meanwhile, for investment beneficiary, Zoop, the future lies in expanding the types of products it can offer businesses.
“We believe that any company, in any sector, will be able to add new revenue lines by offering digital accounts, prepaid cards, withdrawals, transfers, bill payments, instant payments, and a series of other products and services available on the white-label technology platform from Zoop,” says Fabiano Cruz, CEO and co-Founder at Zoop.
Moreover, to embellish these products and woo businesses in the process, Zoop offers white-label solutions.
What with the whole fintech boom in Latam, investors are quite keen on startups working with white-label products. And there are plenty of cases that illustrate this.
Take Brazilian FitBank for example; It raised an investment with J.P. Morgan last July. Venezuelan NovoPayments launched its white-label platform earlier this month alongside its investor, Visa.
Or how’s about Goldman Sachs who led a round for US$22.5 million in fintech iugu last week. There’s also the fact that white-label startup FT Technologies from Costa Rica is one of the finalists for the Visa Everywhere Initiative.
Related articles: Tech and startups from Brazil!
-ML