The sector fintechin Argentina it is positioned as the most dynamic and attractive when attracting venture capital investments. The startups that offer financial services based on the use of technology have been registering strong growth in recent years.
Within this segment, the vertical of payment methods It came to dominate the scene, displacing loans from the place of privilege. However, the protagonists of this universe They have a critical vision of today.
“The digital payment structure is 30 or 40 years old and is already obsolete. The pending task of this second fintech wave is to modernize that infrastructure.”said Gastón Irigoyen, from Pomelo.
Irigoyen opened the panel that analyzed “The next wave in fintech”, during the Argentine Investment Forum 2024 which met at the Palacio Libertad, former CCK, organized by the Argentine Association of Private Capital, Entrepreneurship and Seed (ARCAP) and the Argentine Agency for Investment and International Trade (AAICI).
The Forum met again after a four-year break. They participated more than 500 experts who met with representatives of venture capital, private equity, seed capital, family offices, corporate funds and institutional funds from the United States, Chile, Paraguay, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates that operate or are looking for opportunities to operate in the country.
Pomelo is a b2b fintech, meaning that its clients are other fintechs to which it provides technological infrastructure for issuing, processing and managing card payments.
Regarding the changes that this industry is experiencing, Gastón Irigoyen said: “Now a company can incorporate a system to start processing payments.” in just 9 days. It is something that until now could take up to two years.”
“Our business thesis it was the experiencewhich we acquired at some point as users of the traditional payment system that led to frustrating situations because its structure is broken and does not support all the changes that are occurring,” he added.
In any case, he imagined the future of the system as “more efficient, with optionality, but not absolutely free as is sometimes assumed. It will be a complex future, with many options, but always better because there will be more coexistence of proposals and greater competition.”
Regarding the conditions necessary to promote change, Irigoyen mentioned the standardization of the regulatory framework and the tax issue.
“The payment system works on a basis of incentives. If paying in cash continues to be cheaper than digital options, it will not be able to develop. And that is where the tax issue can be decisive,” explained the businessman.
The debate on the infrastructure of the digital payment system
Tomás Mindlin, from Tapi, another fintech focused on payment infrastructure, also referred to the validity of cash payments as a problem to be solved in Latin America.
“In countries like Mexico, which has a system of fast and free transfers, 80% of payments are still made in cash in the retail segment,” he explained.
And while he praised the progress in payment digitalization achieved in Argentina through immediate transfers and interoperable QR code, he said that “Brazil remains the country that is several steps ahead of the rest in the region.”
In that sense, he mentioned the transfer system that allows real-time payments called Pix, which was created by the Central Bank of Brazil.
For this reason, Mindlin spoke of the need to take into account the particularities of each country when analyzing the fintech landscape in Latin America, particularly the Payments vertical.
“In the payment of services it seems that everything has been completely resolved, because we are used to paying through home banking. But The infrastructure behind it is obsolete and must be updated. The flow of payments that traditional commerce demands is not the same as Mercado Libre,” he highlighted.
The co-founder of Tapi also mentioned some variables that he considers necessary to continue promoting the fintech universe in Argentina. “The regulatory system is something that can make the process of growing easy or difficult. The macroeconomy also influences, since without stability it is very difficult for investment to continue arriving in the country. To invest, there must be credit, and without macroeconomic stability, no one offers credit.”
For her part, the Ecuadorian expert Daniela Espinosa, from the financial solutions fintech Ábaco, maintained that “The new wave of fintech opens up giant opportunities for investment and growth.”
“Traditional banking has always offered security. But now the fintech proposal is to offer new experiences to operate, in addition to security,” he added.
“Argentina needs to resolve its situation double risk, economic and politicalas a condition to attract investments for the private sector,” he added. and raised dollarization as a recipe that allowed his country, Ecuador, to improve its macroeconomic situation.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
