Elevar Equity led a US$5.25m investment in Uruguayan digital banking platform Bankingly, with participation from The Rise Fund and Endeavor Catalyst.

Omni invested an undisclosed amount in Ergoncredit, a Brazilian credit fintech for small and medium-sized businesses.  As part of the agreement, the controlling shareholder of the Omni Group, Erico Ferreira, acquired 25% of Ergon.

Accesstage invested R$2m for an undisclosed stake in IN10, a Brazil-based  data analysis and business intelligence company.  

A presidential decree in Brazil will ease foreign investment into credit-related fintechs. Previously, financial services companies with foreign capital could only operate in Brazil by presidential decree. Now, for companies with foreign capital that are working on credit and lending, such a decree is no longer needed.

Social impact investor Oikocredit and the IDB Lab invested US$5.7m in Sempli, a Colombian fintech providing loans to SMEs. In 2017, Sempli raised a US$3.6m seed round from Velum Ventures, FOMIN, XTP1, Grupo Generaciones, and DGGF (Dutch Good Growth Fund).

Visa made its first investment in Brazil in Conductor, a payments processing platform backed by Riverwood Capital.

Village Capital invested US$75k each in the winners of its 2018 Fintech Latam Program: Vexi, a Mexican credit card app for millennials, and Siembro, an Argentine fintech platform for agrobusiness.

Vector Inovação e Tecnologia (Vit) acquired a controlling stake in Brazilian fintech Beblue, a payments and loyalty platform for small merchants.

Goldman Sachs led a US$34m investment in Ualá, an Argentine mobile banking app, with participation from monashees, Ribbit Capital, Jefferies Group LLC, Cohen’s Point72 Ventures and Soros’s family office. 

Stone Pagamentos IPO’d on the Nasdaq, raising US$1.1b for an initial market cap of almost US$6.6b. Investors include Ant Financial (Alibaba’s investment arm), Madrone Partners (Walton family), Berkshire Hathaway, Tiger Global, Actis, Gávea Investimentos, Valor Capital, and 3G Capital’s founders Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira.