NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Cofounded by Fermin Bueno and Andres Fontao who also cofounded Startupbootcamp FinTech LATAM, Finnovisita sees itself as an impact organization that accelerates fintech entrepreneurship in Spanish speaking countries, builds bridges between startups and financial institutions and facilitates the transformation of advanced financial services and the eradication of financial exclusion.  The platform is on the cusp of celebrating its fourth year boosting fintech in Latin America and Spain.

Looking into the crystal ball, Bueno recently blogged about opportunities and trends in the fintech sector for the upcoming year:

“We are convinced that 2017 will be the year in which Fintech will reinforce itself as the most powerful and rapid tool in the eradication of financial exclusion in Latin America, leaving other conservative initiatives carried out by microfinance and traditional financial institutions behind. Through the elaboration of its different innovation radars, Finnovista has seen how more than 1000 Fintech startups in Latin America are innovating across all financial services, from payments, lending, crowdfunding or management tools to insurance and wealth management. But there is a particularly noteworthy trend in Latin America’s Fintech startup scene: 40% of these services are focused on serving ‘invisible’ customers; the unbanked and underbanked, whether consumers or micro-, small- and medium-size enterprises. These Fintech startups, which from Finnovista we have called “Fintech for Inclusion”, are already fundraising several hundred million dollars and are accelerating innovation for inclusive solutions at levels never before seen in the traditional financial industry. Everything suggests that in the following years these levels of funding, which are here to serve Latin America’s unbanked and underbanked, will multiply by nearly 10, which will position Fintech for Inclusion as one of the most dynamic opportunities for investment worldwide.”