Latin America Fintech Landscape: An inside look at 5 of the most innovative regions propelling the LATAM fintech market to surpass $150 billion

  Fintech has had a staggering influence globally, catapulting to new highs in major financial markets like the UK and the US, but Latin America (LATAM) has lagged behind — until now.  A massive fintech boom is taking hold in the region as innovative upstarts look to leverage widespread smartphone and internet penetration to serve the region's massive unbanked and underbanked populations and small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Meanwhile, authorities in many of these countries have enacted fintech-friendly regulations, having identified fintech and digital financial services as a way to provide widespread financial access, while international investors have honed in on the region as an attractive investment space as it becomes harder to identify and compete for these startups in mature markets like the US and UK. And the pace of fintech growth in the region is evidenced by the vast sums LATAM startups have raised: In Q2 2019, fintechs secured $481 million, representing a six-quar