Latin American startup Belvo, whose open finance API platform is used to access end-user data to build financial products, raises $43M Series A
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch :
Context & Ripple Effects
Belvo's $43M Series A lands amid a funding surge for Latin American fintech infrastructure rather than consumer apps: São Paulo's Open Co raised $115M led by SoftBank after merging lender Geru with analytics firm Rebel, and Creditas drew SoftBank capital at scale back in 2019 as regional lending matured.
The raise also sits inside a broader API-layer pattern crossing regions: London-based Fidel API pulled in a $65M Series B led by Bain Capital for identity, data, and payments tools, while Pomelo launched months later targeting fintech-as-a-service for LatAm businesses — meaning Belvo is early into what is becoming a contested category.
First-order effects
- Belvo gains fresh capital to scale its open finance API platform, directly expanding the data-access plumbing available to developers building financial products on top of Latin American bank accounts.
Second-order effects
- Pomelo's entry into fintech-as-a-service infrastructure sets up head-to-head competition with Belvo over which platform becomes the default integration layer for LatAm businesses, pressuring both on pricing and coverage.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — SoftBank backing consolidated lenders like Open Co while VC funds stack rounds into data-API startups — Latin American fintech splits into an infrastructure tier of API providers feeding a product tier of lenders and brands, mirroring how Fidel API and embedded-finance players like Alviere are structuring markets elsewhere.
The trend: Financial data access is becoming a venture-funded API business, with Latin America emerging as a distinct battleground where infrastructure platforms compete to sit between banks and product builders.