Tencent invests in Argentina’s neobank, Ualá

LatAm List – After receiving investments from titans like George Soros, Steve Cohen, and Goldman Sachs, Ualá will add a new stakeholder: China’s Tencent. The undisclosed equity investment will help Argentina’s neobank expand across Argentina, according to founder and CEO, Pierpaolo Barbieri.

This Tencent investment comes just months after a $180M investment in Brazil’s neobank, Nubank, at a valuation of $4B. The Chinese mobile giant appears to be keeping a close eye on the Latin American fintech industry.

Although Argentina is in a recession, Ualá has been growing quickly. They issued over 500,000 cards between October 2017 and December 2018 and raised a $34M Series B in October 2018.

From Bloomberg:

“Tencent invests because it’s betting on what will happen in Argentina over the next 10 years, rather than what will happen in the next six months,” said Pierpaolo in a phone interview.

From Perfil:

“The investment from Tencent, one of the world leaders in fintech, is a vote of confidence for Ualá’s strategy of creating a new generation of financial services. This investment will help us grow even faster, both in users and in services available through our platform, since in 2019 we expanded to include 4000 services and the SUBE card,” said the founder.

Read previous coverage of Ualá here:

Argentines can now top up SUBE cards via Ualá

International investors flock to back Argentine neobank, Ualá

Ualá seals partnership with Banco Industrial to offer top-ups via bank transfer

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