Argentine Fintech Ualá Raises Major Funding In Latin America
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Argentine-based fintech firm Ualá, has raised $300 million in a major funding round. This now values Ualá at $2.75 billion, one of the highest for tech companies in Latin America recently.
Allianz X, part of the Allianz group, led the funding, with help from hedge fund manager Alan Howard. This investment shows growth in Argentina’s tech industry, which has had some hard times before.
Ualá Aims To Become Argentina’s Biggest Bank
Founded in 2017, Ualá now has 8 million customers in Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia. The company offers services like debit and credit cards, loans, payments, and investment options.
Pierpaolo Barbieri, Ualá’s founder and Chief Executive Officer, said this funding will help the company grow to be Argentina’s biggest bank. He shared that Ualá reached full profitability in Argentina this year and wants to do the same in other places.
This funding round is important after a time of fewer investments in Latin America, partly because of higher interest rates in the United States. Argentina’s President, Javier Milei, said Ualá’s success shows Argentina’s promise in tech. He said this shows the country has many chances to grow in tech.
Ualá grew quickly in Argentina by helping people without access to regular banks. About 20% of adults in Argentina now use Ualá’s services. Barbieri said that Ualá grew its lending by five times in 2024, helping many who couldn’t get credit before.
Ualá Wants To Boost Argentina’s Credit Market
Argentina’s private credit market is small, only about 5% of the country’s GDP. In Brazil, the credit market is more than 50% of GDP, and in Chile, it is 90%. Barbieri believes Argentina’s credit market could grow a lot in the future, especially if the economy continues to improve.
Ualá is supported by big investors like SoftBank Latin America Fund and China’s Tencent. The company hopes that with this funding, it will reach full profitability in all its markets. It wants to avoid needing more funds and aims to grow as Argentina’s largest bank.
Ualá is a fintech company from Argentina that offers a mobile app to help people use a Mastercard prepaid debit card and other financial services. The company was started by Pierpaolo Barbieri, with support from Point72 Ventures as an investor. Ualá’s competitors include Brubank, another digital bank in Argentina, which lets people handle transactions through their app.
With Ualá’s prepaid debit card, users load money onto the card first and don’t need a bank account to use it. The main product is its mobile app, which is part of a larger goal to help more people in Latin America access digital finance. If a Ualá card is lost or stolen, users can freeze it directly in the app.
