LatAm Open Finance Platform Syncfy Raises $10M in Seed Round

Latin American open finance firm Syncfy has raised $10 million to broaden its customer base.

The funding — a seed round led by Point72 Ventures — comes amid a boom in the use of digital payments in Latin America.

“The positive response we’ve received from our customers in Latin America so far has been overwhelming, and the funding we are announcing today will enable Syncfy to meet the demand and bring financial automation to even more partners across the region,” Gerardo Treviño, co-founder and CEO at Syncfy, said in a news release.

Syncfy’s platform allows for single API access to financial data from more than 125 banks, digital wallets, tax authorities, utility providers, crypto exchanges and blockchains across more than 15 countries in Latin America, as well as internationally.

Its customers include large banks and enterprise software companies such as BBVA and Intuit and startups such as FinTech unicorn Clara.

The company says it will use the funding to expand its client base in Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia and launch “payment initiation solutions in key markets, enabling interoperable access to financial data as well as the seamless transfer of funds via API.”

Digital payment use is growing quickly in Latin America, PYMNTS wrote recently, threatening to surpass cash as the region’s preferred transaction method.

One study found that mobile bank accounts in Latin America increased by 67% in 2020, with QR code payments also quickly gaining ground.

Brazil’s Pix system, overseen by the country’s central bank, drew in 60% of the country’s population in its first 10 months, while Argentina’s Mercado Pago has processed more than 8.5 million QR code payments since it debuted in 2018.

Meanwhile, international eCommerce is growing faster than domestic eCommerce throughout the region, another development that can be tied to the pandemic’s impact on online shopping.

Customers shopping from home don’t care where their goods originate from, and merchants from far-flung countries often offer better prices than domestic sources. Last year saw large increases in cross-border purchases in countries like Chile, Colombia and Mexico.