Central America is home to many Fintech firms such as Cuanto, Sube, and Klap which specialize in online payments. There’s also Adelantos and Vana which focus on personal credit.
Central America based Fintech firms Omni and Cuscatalan are part of the region’s banking sector. CloudBiz focuses on billing and Panama based Fortesza specializes in crowdfunding.
Some of the region’s blockchain or distributed ledger tech (DLT)-focused companies include Blockchain Costa Rica, Bitwyre, Covalent, Cryptobuyer, and fluzcoin.
Central America includes several countries such as Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. The region is home to more than 44 million consumers, which is about as many people living in Argentina.
Most Central American countries don’t have developed economies, when compared to larger Latin American nations such as Mexico. These smaller countries also lag behind when it comes to consumers’ purchasing power.
The Fintech sector in Central America does not yet have the appropriate or updated technology infrastructure and there’s also a shortage of talent or experienced professionals in the region. Social impact funds have been contributing capital to these countries, so that they can develop the infrastructure needed to support a fast-growing economy.
IDB Invest, a member of the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB), and a multilateral development bank focused on supporting the economic development of its member countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, has provided nearly $40 million in funds to El Salvador’s Cuscastlan through a debt financing round.
Fintech firm Rapyd recently teamed up with PayMyTuition to enable students in Latin America and the Asia Pacific to make international tuition payments within minutes.
Cryptocurrency adoption in Latin America is on the rise, which may be due to a dramatic rise in smartphone users, according to Santiago Alvarado, director of international payments at Bitso.
Meanwhile, in South America, Uruguay’s Kona, which enhances customers’ banking experience with AI, machine learning, and chatbots, recently signed a contract with a Canadian bank