Chilean fintech company Fintual announced a $39 million investment in a round led by Sequoia Capital.
This is the first investment that the Menlo Park-based VC firm has made in Chile. However, Sequoia has invested in other Latin American companies from different industries, including Despegar.com (travel), Rappi (delivery) and Nubank (fintech/neobanking).
Other funds that have previously invested in Fintual include Kaszek, ALLVP and Y Combinator. So far, the fintech has received a total investment $57 million.
Fintual is an asset manager that offers several financial services, mainly savings and investments. It is the first company of its type in Chile and Mexico that can onboard new customers in a completely digital way. Fintual is regulated in both countries.
The fintech company currently manages $700 million in assets for more than 72,000 customers through passive investments, mainly exchange-traded funds or ETFs.
Founded in Chile in 2018 by Pedro Pineda, Omar Larré, Agustín Feuerhake, and Andrés Marinkovic, Fintual expects to manage $1 billion in assets in the next few months and up to $2 billion by the end of 2022.
Fintual began operating in Mexico in 2020 through a partnership with Invermerica, an investment fund manager that ended up acquiring last July. With this new round, Fintual will focus in growing in the Mexican market. Pedro Pineda, the company’s CEO told Bloomberg: “Our challenge for the next 18 months will be Mexico, Mexico, Mexico.”
