Fintech Ualá obtained authorization from the National Banking and Securities Commission of Mexico (CNBV) and the Bank of Mexico buy ABC Capital bank, an entity with which the Argentine firm had previously worked.
Now the Mexican bank, founded 12 years ago, will become part of Ualá, which will allow Pierpaolo Barbieri’s studio have a local leg continue to grow in that market.
and the second acquisition made by Ualá, which last year obtained approval to purchase 100% of the shares of Wilobank in Argentina.
In recent months, Ualá and ABC Capital entered into a co-branding agreement (Ualá ABC) in Mexico, under the premise of the digitization of finance. In this mode, the bank had launched various products, such as credit card, remittances and personal loans.
“The acquisition of ABC Capital will allow Ualá to accelerate product launches in Mexico, our largest growing marketBarbieri said so in a statement. The company has also been operating in Colombia since January 2022.
“This is a huge step for Ualá’s regional development, as it confirms that with regulated entities we can offer a unique and differentiated proposition,” said the Chief Executive Officer of Ualá.
The change of control process will be formalized in the next few days, starting a period of integration between the two companies.
Ualá recently announced an investment in the region of 150 million dollars for the next 18 months, to reach more than 25 million users in the next five years. It currently has more than 4 million cards issued in Argentina.
The company has funds such as SoftBank Latin America Fund and Tencent among its investors, and has reached a valuation of $2,450 million.
His latest outing in Argentina
This week, Ualá presented a smart payment terminal (POS) with which it hopes to compete with Mercado Pago and the main players in the acquisitions sector, for payments in medium and large companies.
He promised he will “automatic crediting” of payments and the lowest commissions on the marketto carve out a place in a growing segment, in light of the increased digitization of payments.
Since the end of 2021, fintech has created its Ualá Bis business unit, with a focus on payments, especially for entrepreneurs and small businesses. Now, with the POS Pro launching this Tuesday, it’s targeting the biggest businesses – small and medium-sized businesses that need to collect their sales digitally face-to-face.
Source: Clarin
