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

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Fintech is booming around the world. Global investments in fintech companies have continued to rise during the last two years. After international financing for fintech startups hit $19 billion in new funding rounds at the end of 2015, the volume cranked up even higher.

Fintech investments reached a new high of $15 billion in just six months by the middle of 2016, per a BI Intelligence report published last November. According to ABFintechs, the Brazilian fintech association, the fintech startup scene in Brazil has been especially hot. “Based on our latest figures, there are now 244 fintechs in Brazil. The number of startups in the sector have tripled in the last two years,” says Rodrigo Ubaldo, president of ABFintechs.

In Latin America and Brazil, a lack of banking services has created a boom for entrepreneurs and investors seeking to build lucrative fintech innovators there. While 85 percent of Brazilians now live in cities, 40 percent remain excluded from traditional banking systems, according to São Paulo-based Itaú Unibanco, the largest private bank in Latin America.