FINNOSUMMIT to bring Latin America’s most advanced Fintech startups to Miami

Arguably one of the most successful fintech conferences in Latin America, FINNOSUMMIT Miami will bring together cutting-edge industry players to discuss opportunities in the sector on November 9.

Organized by fintech startup accelerator Finnovista, the aim of FINNOSUMMIT Miami is to analyze disruptive tech innovations in the Latin American financial ecosystem as well as debate the future of regulation within the region.

To do so many are looking to Mexico’s new Fintech Law for guidance, which aims to regulate the sector – particularly crypto-currencies – to protect against money laundering and financing extremists.

“Once/if they adopt it, Mexico will be the first country in LatAm to have a formal fintech law, which regulates not all fintech activity but some of it,” said Finnovista and Startupbootcamp Fintech Mexico City co-Founder Andres Fontao, adding, “Mexican law, as it stands now (the draft law) would regulate currencies, crowfunding, and open banking quicker, and would include the concept of a regulatory sandbox [a testbed for fintechs to operate under].”

In Mexico alone, new fintech startups could carve out 30% of the banking market in the coming decade. According to Inter American Development Bank, Latin America as a whole boasts more than 700 fintech startups. And the market is growing fast – 60 percent of the startups were founded in the last three years.

FINNOSUMMIT will bring Latin America’s most advanced fintech startups to Miami for the first time. This includes the selected finalists for Visa’s Everywhere Initiative.

Visa’s Everywhere Initiative traveled across Latin America in August and September in search of the innovative fintech startups that meet the needs of the local market – think solutions that innovate for the unbanked, a group made up of 400 million people in Latin America.

Semifinals were held in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Bogota and Sao Paulo, after which 10 startups were chosen to represent the top talent at a 4-day immersion program. They’ll present their projects in the final at FINNOSUMMIT, and compete for a grand prize of $50,000 USD.

Notable attendees at the event include CEO and co-Founder of Startupbootcamp FinTech, Nektarios Liolios, and Jim McCarthy, the Global Head of Innovation & Strategic Partnerships of Visa Inc.

Investors include Principal of QED Investors Mike Packer, co-founder and Managing Partner of IGNIA Alvaro Rodriguez, and Johanna Posada,the  co-founder and Managing Director of Elevar Equity. To see a full list of speakers, click here.

TOP 10 FINALISTS FOR VISA’S EVERYWHERE INITIATIVE

alegra – (Colombia) Alegra is a cloud accounting app for SMEs. It allows them to invoice, control expenses, and develop intelligent reports, among other things. 

Bankity Card (Colombia) – Bankity Card is the only card in Latin America that’s integrated in real time with a powerful Personal Financial Management app. With it, users can manage their savings according to their spending trends.

Increase (Argentina) – Increase is on a mission to promote technological solutions that bring Latin American businesses together. One solution is the IncreaseCard, which modernizes how businesses control their card operations.

OrganizaMe (Chile) –  OrganizaMe provides SaaS applications to help SMEs and entrepreneurs manage their finances.  The company offers three different plans, depending on the size of the business.

Pipol (Chile) – Pipol is a mobile payments platform that enables people and businesses to pay, send, and receive money using their smartphones, a webpage, or POS systems.

Saffe (Brazil) – Saffe lets people pay with a selfie. The company leverages facial recognition technology to make payment more secure. Merchants recieve payment directly to their smartphones.  

T&E Express (Argentina) – T&E Express enables companies to manage their expense claims – from requesting advances, to logging milage.

Übank (Chile) – Übank is an automated savings solutions that helps people save according to their lifestyles. It empowers users to save small amounts of money during their daily activities, to see real results at the end of the month.

Uniko (Mexico) –  Uniko offers users a new way of giving and receiving gifts, by enabling them to exchange gifts for money.  

Vérios (Brazil) – Vérios enables users to automate the management of individual portfolios, to make investments simpler.

This story orginally appeared on Latam.tech.