The pandemic continues to present hurdles unlike any other event in history, full of unique and unprecedented challenges that turned our lives — and the innovation economy — upside down. However, it also served as a catalyst for many industries within the venture ecosystem — especially fintech — to be disrupted and create new opportunities. Fintech has arguably been the hottest sector post-COVID. The financial services sector has been notoriously slow to evolve. Still, the pandemic forced incredible digital acceleration — becoming a tipping point for institutions, small to medium-sized businesses (SMB) and even the government, to embrace fintech and invest in infrastructure. Coupled with changing consumer behavior, this has led to a surge in financial literacy and adoption while increasing demand for products and services such as contactless payments, lending and cryptocurrency. Additionally, infrastructure fintech companies in areas such as Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and embedded finance have allowed fintech startups (and non-fintech startups) to introduce financial products to market quicker and cheaper. This exciting opportunity has further spurred enthusiasm and caused investors to pour money into the space — causing massive valuation step-ups and minting new unicorns in the process. This couldn’t be truer in regions such as Latin America (LatAm), which saw fintech investment accelerate in 2020 and is on pace to set a record in 2021.

https://www.svb.com/blogs/julia-figueiredo/latam-emerging-as-a-global-leader-in-fintech