We are proud to announce that IGNIA has successfully sold its stake in Arcus to global payments processor Mastercard (Find BusinessWire article here). IGNIA initially invested in Arcus’s Series A-1 and led their Series A-3. This transaction represents a successful exit for the Fund. 

IGNIA continues to support leading tech entrepreneurs, playing an important role in consolidating the Fintech ecosystem in Latin America. We are proud of the strong network of outstanding entrepreneurs looking to create value and disruption in the region, that have trusted us to continue building partnerships. It’s been an honor to partner with Co-Founders Iñigo Rumayor and Edrizio de la Cruz, and the amazing team they have built.

This has enabled IGNIA to yield attractive returns to our investors, placing us among the top 5% of global venture capital funds.

Mountain View-based cryptobank Abra has announced the closing of their Series C led by IGNIA, through an SPV (See Fortune article here). The Company raised $55MM from IGNIA, Blockchain Capital, Lerer Hippeau, American Express Ventures, Stellar Development Foundation, Kingsway Capital, and Tiga Investments at a $340MM post-money valuation. IGNIA initially invested in Abra’s Pre-Series B Round and has played a key role in the Company’s expansion in Latin America as the only investor from the Region. Abra has had a significant growth in the past year becoming a leading wealth management platform for crypto investing. IGNIA is immensely proud to be partnered with Abra in this journey to revolutionize the cryptoasset and finance industries. Congratulations to Bill Barhydt (Founder & CEO) and the entire Abra team.

Abra was founded in 2014 in Mountain View, California and has rapidly grown to become a full scale cryptobank, offering trading, borrowing and interest earning capabilities on cryptoassets. The Company has experienced exponential growth, by July 2021, Abra revenues are 4 times the 2020 annual total, and is up to over $1 BN in AUM, as they continue to add new features, providing a safe and secure platform to manage crypto. Abra operates in over 100+ countries around the globe.

We are proud to announce that IGNIA has successfully sold its stake in Sr. Pago to Mexican fintech Konfío. Having led Sr. Pago’s Pre-Series A, this transaction represents a 46% IRR for our investors and a very successful exit for the Fund. 

IGNIA played an important role in the growth process, proving our ability to add value as a strategic partner to our portfolio companies. 

We are committed to partnering with leading tech entrepreneurs solving fundamental issues for the emerging middle class in Latin America and our returns have placed us among the top 5% of global venture capital funds.

Tiendanube announced the closing of their Series E round for US$500 MM at a valuation of US$3.1 BN (see TechCrunch article here), a round led by Tiger Global and Insight Partners. IGNIA is proud to be part of this incredible journey alongside Tiendanube, achieving an important milestone for the VC ecosystem in Latin America as a newly minted unicorn. The team, led by Santiago Sosa (Co-Founder & CEO), has had an outstanding trajectory during the past 11 years, testament to IGNIA’s strategy of partnering with leading tech entrepreneurs solving Latin America’s most fundamental issues.

Founded in 2010 in Brazil and Argentina, Tiendanube (known as Nuvemshop in Brazil) is one of Latin America’s leading e-commerce solution platforms. Their top-notch technology allows SMBs to set up and manage their own online stores, integrating full-scale payment and fulfillment capacities.

Congratulations to the entire team, we are very excited about Tiendanube’s future!

Mexico’s Leading SMB Financial Management SaaS to Join SUMA’s Global Platform

Today, Rapyd announced that it has raised US$300MM of capital in its Series D  (see TechCrunch article here).  IGNIA is proud to be the only Mexico-based fund among Rapyd’s investors.  The success of CEO and co-founder Arik Shtilman and his team are a testament to our strategy of investing in and collaborating with the world’s best tech entrepreneurs looking to enter Mexico and Latin America.

Founded in 2016, Rapyd is one of the largest global payment networks.  The Tel-Aviv based company offers fintech-as-a-service to facilitate the integration of local transactions capabilities with global e-commerce platforms.  The company offers four principal solutions including Rapyd Collect, Rapyd Disburse, Rapyd Wallet and Rapyd Issuing.

Congratulations to Arik and the entire team!

Contact IGNIA
Christine Chang
Industry & Investor Relations
Tel: +52 (81) 8000 7164
Email: ccc@ignia.vc

● The fastest growing challenger bank in Mexico seeks to reach more than 500,000 users in the next 12 months.
● Fondeadora is Google´s most recent and first bet in a FinTech company worldwide.

Mexico City, August 31, 2020: Fondeadora (https://fondeadora.com/), Fondeadora, the Mexican challenger bank leader in the market, closed a Series A investment round of US$14 MM led by Gradient Ventures, Google’s early stage venture fund. Also, participated in this round Scott Belsky, Product Director of Adobe and Founder of Behance – the largest online platform for showcasing the creative industry works – as well as other investment funds like Y Combinator, IGNIA, FinTech Collective and Sound Ventures, this last founded by Ashton Kutcher.

“We are very excited to partner with Norman and Rene and their vision of building the best neobank experience in Latam” said Darian Shirazi, General Partner of Gradient Ventures / Google. “The growth they have shown, as well as the user experience they have built, gives us full confidence that Fondeadora will become one of the main ways for Mexican consumers to move, spend and save their money”.

Gradient Ventures is Google’s investment fund focused on supporting early stage startups by providing capital, resources and education. Founded in July 2017, Gradient has invested in 60 companies whereby Fondeadora is its most recent and first bet in a FinTech company worldwide.

“While financial markets are focused on financial optimization, design focuses on user experience”, said Rene Serrano, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Fondeadora. “As founders, we decided to reinvent the bank, through a design-driven vision”.

Created in 2018, Fondeadora was co-founded by Norman Müller and Rene Serrano, a couple of designers who saw the opportunity to merge technology and design, to revolutionize the banking experience for Mexicans. Through its services, Fondeadora seeks to facilitate consumer’s immediate access to their money and give them freedom to use it whenever they want.

“We are very excited to continue supporting Norman and Rene in consolidating the leading position of Fondeadora in the Mexican FinTech sector. The great team they have managed to put together coupled with Fondeadora’s highly innovative solution, have the potential to revolutionize the way Mexicans use financial services. Likewise, welcoming such relevant co-investors in the Mexican startup ecosystem is a great satisfaction”, said Fabrice Serfati, Partner of IGNIA.

Just one year after starting operations in Mexico, Fondeadora has more than 150,000 active deposit accounts, receives monthly transactions for more than MX$400 MM and experiences growth of 40% month over month. In addition, it operates with the technological and operational infrastructure of a bank, which increases the type of services that it can offer to its users.

“México continues to lag in the financial services industry, there is still a lot to build”, adds Norman Müller, Co-Founder and Co-CEO. “There is a large underserved market that needs a bank to be focused on understanding and addressing the real needs for its users. With that in mind, we want to become the new standard for financial services in the region”.

With the capital raised in this investment round, Fondeadora will seek to reach more than 500,000 users in the next 12 months. In this respect, it will continue its growth in the region and will continue working to offer its users a spectacular service experience and fulfill the objective of becoming the leading premium savings account in México.

In addition, Fondeadora will soon implement the QR code payment modality, as well as the production of infoless cards, which will allow them to offer the safest card and account in Mexico.

About IGNIA
IGNIA is a venture capital firm that invests in Mexico and Latin America in high growth digital platforms that serve the needs of consumers in the emerging middle class in sectors such as financial services, education and eCommerce. Founded in 2007, IGNIA has two funds with $200 million dollars under management. For more information please visit: http://www.ignia.mx, http://www.igniaunlocked.mx and @IGNIA_Fund

About Gradient Ventures
Gradient Ventures is Google’s venture fund with technical mentorship for early stage startups. Through Gradient, Google provides startups with capital resources and exclusive Access to experts, and training bootcamps. Gradient takes a minority stake in the startups they invest in.

About Fondeadora
Fondeadora is an app linked to a debit card that allows you to send, spend and save your money with simplicity never seen before. We seek to provide financial access to all of Mexico through technology, in order to democratize a system that has always been closed to millions of Mexicans. Fondeadora manages to solve the inefficiencies of the old banks to return their time, money and energy to their users.

Contact FONDEADORA
Pamela Olvera pamela@fondeadora.com
Cheryl Santos cheryl@fondeadora.com
Saúl Lomelí saul@netacomunicacion.mx
Valentina Ugarte valentina@netacomunicacion.mx

Contact IGNIA
Jimena García Cuéllar
Investor and Institutional Relations
Tel: +52 (55) 8000 7295
Email: jgc@ignia.mx

La cuenta atrás ya ha comenzado si crees que tu startup tecnológica está llamada a revolucionar la industria financiera en México y quieres construir una nueva banca más inclusiva y justa no puedes perder la oportunidad de participar en la competencia FINNOSUMMIT Challenge.

Las startups interesadas pueden inscribirse sin coste alguno en la competencia desde el 2 de julio y hasta el próximo 29 de julio, a través de la página web. La convocatoria está dirigida a startups tecnológicas que operan en México (la empresa no tiene que ser de origen mexicano, sino que debe tener operaciones en el país).

Esta competencia, apoyada por Scotiabank, tiene como objetivo principal promover el emprendimiento tecnológico a nivel nacional e impulsar a las startups finalistas a un siguiente nivel de desarrollo, brindándoles gran notoriedad, mentorías especializadas y acceso a partnerships con los principales actores de la industria financiera. Además, la startup ganadora podrá participar en un programa de inmersión de una semana con Scotiabank en Toronto, Canadá. La convocatoria estará abierta hasta el 29 de julio de 2018 y se dará especial atención a aquellas iniciativas que involucren tecnologías basadas en Data Analytics, Scoring Alternativo, Pagos Contactless (Biometría, pagos seamless), IoT, KYC y Cybersecurity.

La final de la competencia tendrá lugar en el marco de la conferencia de FINNOSUMMIT  que este año se realizará el 12 y 13 de septiembre y tendrá como sede la Ciudad de México. Las 10 finalistas seleccionadas, presentarán sus proyectos ante un jurado compuesto por los mejores expertos en emprendimiento Fintech e industria financiera a nivel internacional y ante el público que asista al evento el segundo día, como cierre del evento referente del Fintech en la región. Aprovecha el código de descuento IGN1A20 y consigue tu boleto  con un 20% de descuento por pertenecer a nuestra comunidad y asiste al evento Fintech de referencia en la región.

Desde IGNIA te animamos a aplicar en este competencia pionera en el país  y ¡darle el impulso definitivo a tu proyecto con FINNOSUMMIT Challenge! Solo tienes hasta el próximo 29 de julio. Vamos, no esperes más ¡aplica ahora haciendo click AQUÍ : https://www.finnovista.com/finnosummit-challenge-mexico-2018/ !

Today, at the North American Bitcoin Conference,  I announced the next phase of Abra’s global expansion: Next month, we’ll be enabling Abra worldwide, activating a global network of Tellers who can transact in over 50 currencies, including directly in Bitcoin. This means that anyone with a smartphone in any country can send or receive funds in most major currencies and can cash in or out of their Abra wallet, even without a bank account.

Bitcoin is key to these efforts. While Bitcoin has always been a large part of what we do, it’s been hidden in the background up until now. Last year we launched Abra in the Philippines and the US, and validated that we could release a digital currency product using Bitcoin that didn’t confuse the average consumer. Yes, my 70+ year old mother can use Abra with no help from me. Cool.

Now we’re adding direct Bitcoin support (for depositing and withdrawing) in the Abra App while maintaining the super-user-friendly experience from stage one. Once we launch, any Abra user can use Bitcoin via any third party Bitcoin Wallet to add and remove funds from their Abra App regardless of which currency they’re holding in their Abra Wallet.  (As a reminder Abra is a non-custodial digital currency wallet.  Abra has no access to the user’s private key, even in the instance where the consumer chooses to hold US Dollars.)

We’ll also be launching a network of Abra Tellers – what some people call our Human ATMs – to enable people around the world to use Abra.

So at global launch, we’ll support the following scenarios:

• Bitcoin wallet: Buy, hold, and sell Bitcoin with Abra in addition to any of 50 fiat currencies
• Bitcoin to fiat: Send Bitcoin to anyone worldwide, and the recipient can receive in any of our supported currencies, which they can then cash out via a Teller. The recipient doesn’t even have to know what Bitcoin is, as we’ll take care of the currency conversion.
• Fiat to Bitcoin: Cash in via a Teller in any of our supported currencies (again, without needing to know about Bitcoin), send to anyone worldwide, and the recipient can receive and/or cash out in Bitcoin
• Fiat to fiat: any user can send money in any of our 50+ supported currencies to any other user, and both parties can cash in and out via their local Teller.
• Become a Teller using Bitcoin:  This is huge!  If you’re an existing Bitcoin trader you can now use that Bitcoin to become an Abra Teller and process deposits/withdrawals for people who don’t know what Bitcoin is (Build your own Travelex for digital currency!)

One of the things I’m most excited about is our support for the global Bitcoin trading community.  We estimate that $30-$40 million per week is now traded in person in “fiat vs Bitcoin” in over 75 countries. With our support for Bitcoin Traders as Abra Tellers, Bitcoin Traders can now hold Bitcoin in their Abra App but process deposits and withdrawals in any world currency that the Abra App supports. A consumer holding US Dollars meets a Teller, and processes a withdrawal to receive Argentinian Pesos. Neither party even knows that a dual currency trade transaction took place!  Wow.

This is a huge step forward in realizing our vision of anyone being able to send money easily to anyone else in the world, instantly, privately, and securely. We’ll be rolling our Teller program out globally, starting next month. Tellers can make money while helping their community send and receive money.

If you’re interested in becoming an Abra Teller, we encourage you to apply right away! Please make sure you have the latest app version downloaded, and submit your details right from within the app.  Our onboarding team will contact you as we review applications.

We’re excited for this next stage in our development, and look forward to getting your feedback as we progress!