Big Week for Fintechs in Mexico

In one of our latest Startup Contributor articles, Bruno Ramos Berho, Founder and CEO of Swap, talked about the barriers Mexico faces when it comes to digital wallets. Ramos mentions that the fintech industry has been growing exponentially in the last couple of years, which brings along new ideas and initiatives to start businesses in the sector. However, after the enforcement of the Fintech Law on Mar. 10, 2018, new responsibilities arose that not everyone is willing to adopt.

Interested in more? Here are the week’s main headlines in finance!

• A Campeche judge validated an accusation of bankruptcy made against upstream contractor Marinsa by Perforadora Central and D&P Marine Service. PEMEX played a crucial role in Marinsa’s success by handing it major upstream development contracts at the beginning of this administration but ceased all contracting activities with the Grupo CEMZA company after an internal analysis revealed it had failed to complete a number of contracts for the transportation of offshore platforms in 2020, as mentioned in an MBN article. Marinsa responded to these accusations in November when it sued Perforadora Central. Still, there have been no recent statements.

• Chloé Novène, Investment Associate at ALLVP and one of MBN’s Startup Contributors, wrote about the most active VCs in Spanish-speaking LatAm. Who are the shakers and shapers of the future of financial services? Find the whole chart here.

• After looking at the data from 1Q21, there is evidence that the country’s recovery slowed down. In the most recent HR Ratings report, it is mentioned that given the state of the pandemic and the lingering lockdowns, the economy could be facing a 10 percent fall. There are some options that could help the country boost its economy, like incurring in more debt to encourage profitable projects. If the agriculture sector received more support, there could also be an increase in production and trade, which would also benefit the Mexican economy.

• The electronic loan and direct investments platform Doopla recently became the second fintech to be approved under the Fintech Law in Mexico. It has 700,000 users and an annual growth rate of 121 percent. This is a big achievement for the company, especially given the difficulties in receiving an approval from the CNBV due to COVID-19 complications.