The 10 startup finalists of the fourth edition of the Visa Everywhere Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean, in association with Finnovista, will participate in a virtual 3-weeks immersion program that will focus on exploring and developing collaboration opportunities with Visa and its partners through expert sessions, collaborative workshops and more.
Visa and Finnovista are helping small businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean, in an effort to re-ignite the powerful local economies segment – 99% of the companies in the region are SMEs and represent 61% of formal employment. Another important pillar as we forge ahead in reopening cities across the region, is the ability to provide safe and frictionless payment experiences in public transport or other urban mobility systems, which are vital to urban cities in Latin America. These two important societal challenges were tackled via this edition of Visa Everywhere Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean.
After having received more than 300 applications, 30 startups were selected to compete virtually in the semifinals of Visa Everywhere Initiative LAC 2020. Six startups from each subregion in Latin America and the Caribbean had the opportunity to present their innovative solutions in front of a panel of judges from Visa at virtual gatherings.
Among the semifinalists, two startups were selected as finalists for each region, resulting in a total of 10 finalists that will participate virtually in an immersion program designed to accelerate collaboration with Visa. Meet the proud 10 finalists:
- Lendera (Mexico): Crowdfunding platform to invest in business projects in exchange for returns. Lendera’s clients are SMEs with leasing needs of machinery and equipment for their business. Investors can buy a good and rent it to an SME for a certain period, so their money generates yields while the SME acquires the assets and becomes more competitive in the market.
- Yaydoo (Mexico): Smart Business Purchasing, Yaydoo helps companies to reduce their business expenses by optimizing each purchase. Yaydoo is creating a suite of products in the intersection of SaaS & FinTech designed to make digital B2B payments a simpler experience in LATAM through :procurement & accounts payable automation, accounts receivable automation, corporate purchasing cards and T&E automation.
- FT Technologies (Costa Rica): “Tap On Phone” solution with Digital Onboarding. FT Technologies’s Klap solution can give access to the payment card industry to a lot of SMEs with a low cost terminal.
- Fygaro (Panama): eCommerce generator & invoicing platform. Fygaro is a “Enterprise Resource Planning like” platform for MSMEs with Invoicing, Accounting and eCommerce features ready to use. It provides ease and automation across the sales funnel at an affordable price for MSMEs.
- Quipu Market (Colombia): Quipu creates digital community markets to supply local products and services without trading money. Quipu’s platform is a digital marketplace for informal micro-businesses where they can buy and sell locally using a community token system instead of money. Their interactions in the marketplace build creditworthiness.
- Riqra (Peru): Comprehensive eCommerce platform for manufacturers and distributors. Riqra’s platform allows companies to manage products, promotions, inventory, warehouses, pricing, logistics, customers, credit lines, and taxes.
- Datarisk (Brazil): “Decision as a Service” platform that allows generating predictive models in an automated way. Their data-science based solutions help companies to easily integrate predictive and machine learning models regarding income and fraud prevention into their day to day business. Although their target clients tend to be large companies, they want to develop a better relationship with smaller businesses who also would benefit from this solution.
- mGrana (Brazil): Instant credit mobile app that rates their users through data generated by their smartphones. mGrana is solving a key issue for microentrepreneurs, many who are not part of the formal economy, that improves their access to loans and gives them an opportunity to grow or improve their business. A main element that differentiates mGrana, is that their solution helps the unbanked, where currently in Brazil nearly 33% of Brazilians do not have access to credit.
- Duemint (Chile): Duemint is solving a key issue shared by most small businesses, liquidity. Currently, their SaaS platform automates the SME collection process, settlements with banks and payment methods. They identified these pain points at the heart of small businesses, and want to focus on these, potentially growing new business lines that stem organically from these solutions, such as installment payment solutions or invoice lending – always keeping liquidity improvement as the main goal.
- Prometeo (Uruguay): The largest platform of banking APIs connecting Latin American Financial Institutions. Although their key clients are large financial players such as banks, Prometeo’s solution allows small businesses to receive streamlined and digital services including payments solutions, improved enterprise financial management, and better loans. Prometeo has the potential to be a key link for Fintechs and financial institutions to improve their own services, ultimately helping small businesses throughout the region.
On Thursday, October 15, the 10 finalists will present their solutions at the Visa Everywhere Initiative LAC 2020 virtual showcase, organized in association with Finnovista. The event will be broadcasted live to the entire Fintech community in Latin America and the Caribbean. After the pitches, Visa will announce the 3 winning startups of this year’s program. The winner of the 2020 edition will receive a prize of $ 25,000, the second place will get $ 15,000, and the third runner-up startup a total of $ 10,000. In addition, Visa will review different ways of collaboration with the finalist startups, such as the development of pilot programs or proofs of concept (POC), mentorship opportunities, and more. Who are you rooting for?
