Montreal FinTech Mobi724 to Buy B2B eMarketplace Avenida+

Avenida+, Mobi724, acquisition

Mobi724 Global Solutions, which offers real-time artificial intelligence (AI)-powered payment card solutions, has entered into a $4 million agreement to buy Avenida+, a white label market and eCommerce business, according to a Wednesday (March 2) press release.

Avenida+ has several relationships with banks and has a current card base of around 24 million payment cards. The management for Avenida+ will be the same as before, with current CEO Daniel Jejcic and chief financial officer Mayra Fiszman keeping their positions.

Avenida+ is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where it serves business-to-business (B2B) clients across Latin America, including banks.

The white label marketplace allows payment card issuers, loyalty program operators, shopping mall associations and others to give customers a way to buy online products and offers from both local merchants and global brands.

“We will leverage Avenida+’s existing relationships with over 4,500 merchants and with banks having a current card base of approximately 24 million payment cards so as to enable us to monetize our AI-powered portfolio of solutions, such as cash back and pay with points,” Marcel Vinneau, CEO of Mobi724, said in the release. “As a team, we aim to offer the most innovative portfolio of solutions to our Latam target market of approximately 1 billion payment cards.”

PYMNTS wrote that FinTechs looking to serve small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can sometimes run into challenges, especially if they operate in several jurisdictions.

Read more: Localizing FinTech To Tackle SMBs’ Biggest Cash Headaches

The article cites SUMA SaaS Holdings, which lists the U.K. as a home but also has operations in Argentina, Chile and Mexico, where it provides back-office financial automation tech for SMBs in Latin America.

SUMA CEO Matt Cole said some of the biggest points of friction for those dealing with SMBs are often the same, despite where they’re located.

There are issues like manual and paper-based workflows which have thwarted Cole’s operations, with larger companies having more advantages with which to work, to make sure they’re matching cash flows.