Business Latin America

  2023 Latin American Business Conference in New York February 24th Hear from private and public sector leaders about the current business climate in the region, with a focus on innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship. New York, February 24th, 9am to 5pm, ROSENTHAL PAVILION,  60 Washington Square S,  New York, New York Join the Latin American Business Association (LABA) at the 2023 Annual LABA Conference: Insights from Top Leaders in LatAm. This event will be hosted by NYU Stern and Columbia Business School, in partnership with Young Professionals of the Americas. For over ten years, the Latin American Business Associations (LABA) at CBS and NYU Stern have positioned their Latin America Business Conference as one of the most anticipated forums to discuss the pressing issues, challenges, and achievements of the region. This year, the conference will focus on critical topics for business in Latin America and bring together leaders from important firms like JP M...

  LEAFIO AI Retail Solutions Continues Its Global Expansion With Confidence Entering the Latin American Market LEAFIO AI Retail Solutions continues to expand its geographical presence steadily. This time the company opened representative offices in Mexico and Brazil. Source: NewsWires Even the most advanced and expensive ERP system cannot provide a high level of expertise in inventory management. So it's no surprise that LEAFIO's software has generated such genuine interest here." said Alex Medwin, CEO of LEAFIO Inc. LEAFIO AI Retail Solutions, one of the most innovative retail optimization solution providers in the market, continues to expand its geographical presence steadily. This time the company opened its representative offices in two countries of Latin America – Mexico and Brazil. Now there are Spanish and Portuguese-speaking representatives of the company who are rapidly mastering the local market, actively interacting with retailers from different industries...

  Betsson Group opens new Latin America Operations Center in Bogota "With this opening, Betsson continues with its purpose of achieving a geographically diversified growth, where the Latin American markets have become one of the main sources of income," the company noted. Source: YOGONET On November 22, sports betting and online casino operator Betsson Group inaugurated its operations center for Latin America in the city of Bogota, Colombia. Media and private and public sector entities, including Fecoljuegos (Colombian Federation of Gaming Businessmen), attended the event. "Latin America is a special region for us, so I am especially happy about the opening of this new operations center in Bogota. I am confident that, thanks to the talent present in the company, we will continue our progressive growth in the region and contribute to the development of an industry based on responsible entertainment," said Jesper Svenson, CEO of Betsson Group. In the third q...

  JPMorgan to expand Private-Banking Team in Latin America by 25% The additions would add roughly 100 people to the US firm’s private-banking ranks serving the region from foreign offices in Miami, New York, Houston and Geneva, outposts where it has about 430 employees dedicated to the business. Source: American Banker JPMorgan Chase & Co. is planning to increase headcount in its Latin American private-banking unit by about 25% next year as the firm looks to attract more clients with $5 million to $25 million to invest at the bank. “We have been hiring very aggressively in this segment and will keep doing so,” Edinardo Figueiredo, chief executive officer for JPMorgan’s private-banking business in Latin America, said in an interview. “There’s still a lot to gain.” JPMorgan, already the biggest private bank serving Latin American clients, is gaining market share as political uncertainty persuades many clients to diversify abroad, according to Figueiredo. JPMorgan mana...

  Near Foundation Joins Grupo Nutresa to Unveil Web3 Loyalty Program in Latin America The Near Foundation, the nonprofit organization behind the carbon-neutral blockchain of the same name, will be rolling out a loyalty points program for Grupo Nutresa, one of Latin America’s largest processed food companies.t is the first open-source loyalty program using the Near protocol and aims to reach one million consumers throughout the region. Source: CoinDesk The open-source loyalty program is said to be the first of its kind to use the Near protocol, and aims to reach a million users in Colombia and throughout Latin America, according to a press release. The deployment will begin before the end of the first quarter of 2023. Colombia-based Grupo Nutresa will assemble its existing loyalty programs onto one user-friendly platform supported by Near’s blockchain technology. The new program will eliminate the need for users to hold multiple accounts and will provide Grupo Nutresa with i...

  KONKA Unveils 680 Series Smart TVs in Latin America KONKA Group Co., Ltd. ("KONKA", "the Company"; 000016.SZ), a leading technology company, has announced to roll out its new range of smart color televisions across Latin America*, starting with Brazil. The new bezel-less KONKA 680 Series TVs feature the latest intelligent Android 11 operating system and a 4KUHD screen that provides ultra-high-definition picture quality. KONKA will also showcase the 680 Series TV at CES in January 2023, with more high-tech products in the pipeline for the Americas markets. Source: Konka Group "People's lifestyles are becoming more diverse, and for consumers, injecting fresh elements into their ordinary lives has become a priority," said Kobe Liao, General Manager of International Business Division, KONKA. "The KONKA 680 series TV has been developed to allow more families to enjoy the difference that intelligent products can bring to their daily lives."...

  Latin America warms up to Cryptocurrency From saving to remittance, payments and lending: you name it, LATAM countries are using crypto for it as citizens look for a way to counter sometimes shaky national currencies struggling to hold their own against the US dollar. Given this fertile soil, it’s no wonder blockchain companies are making a beeline for Latin America and the untapped potential it holds for genuine crypto adoption. Source: Grit Daily Crypto adoption is spreading in Latin America (LATAM). The region, which runs from the Caribbean islands all the way to the Argentinian peninsula, comprises some 650 million people and makes up 13% of the Earth’s land surface. And throughout its thronged cities, vibrant towns, and mountainous rural areas, cryptocurrency is taking root as digital assets are starting to be used to solve everyday problems. The LATAM region has been making significant strides in its efforts to bolster crypto adoption and blockchain innovation, with...

  Mercado Libre the Amazon of Latin America Mercado Libre (MELI) falls somewhere along that spectrum, even though we’re a big, big fan of Latin American wrestling culture. Oh, (*checks notes*) wait, that’s Lucha Libre. It turns out Mercado Libre is the biggest e-commerce company south of the U.S. border, and is also rapidly growing its fintech business in e-payments and nontraditional banking as well.  Source: NANALIZE The comparisons to Amazon, PayPal, Square, masked wrestlers et al are inevitable. Readers have been nudging us to cover this $50 billion company for a while. It’s also one of top three holdings in the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF), and even appears among the stocks that make up the popular tech-heavy Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ) that tracks the Nasdaq-100 Index.  Mercado Libre was founded way back in 1999, just five years after Jeff Bezos launched Amazon, by a guy named Marcos Galperin, operating out of a garage in Buenos Aires. A graduate of Stanford ...

Latin America Nu Holdings Ltd. Reports Third Quarter 2022 Financial Results Nu Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NU | B3: NUBR33), (“Nu” or the “Company”), one of the world’s largest digital financial services platforms, released today its Third Quarter 2022 financial results. Financial results are expressed in U.S. dollars and are presented in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).   Source: Business Wire “Nu reported a net profit of $7.8 million in the third quarter, breaking even at the holding level with record revenues of $1.3 billion and year-on-year growth of 171%. Our customer base grew to over 70 million with a record high activity rate of 82% and a leading customer satisfaction score in our industry. We continue to launch and cross sell best-in-class products, while keeping a low-cost tech platform with low cost of funding and a widening profit margin. While we saw increased delinquency in the quarter, consistent with the market trend, our risk-adjust...

  Epsilon acquires Retargetly, expanding database to Latin America  Publicis Groupe data firm identified LATAM as ‘gap’ to deliver growth across the company. Epsilon, the data company owned by Publicis Groupe, is expanding into Latin America with the acquisition of Buenos Aires-based data firm Retargetly. Retargetly has first-party data on consumers in every country in Latin America, collected over an 8-year span. Its data will be used to enrich Epsilon’s global identity graph. Source. Campaign ASIA  Epsilon said it has a small amount of data in a few countries in LATAM, but Retargetly will significantly expand its reach. Epsilon has been using Retargetly’s data in its products for the past four years. With the acquisition, it plans to integrate the full breadth of Retargetly’s data into its Core ID graph so it can begin selling its solutions in LATAM, starting with large markets of Brazil and Mexico.   In smaller markets where Epsilon’s tech products are “too heavy,...

  Airlink expands flight operations to Ecuador, Panama, others The airline has also appointed AVIAREPS as its General Sales Agents (GSA) in Latin America to promote its convenient schedule of flights which serve an unparalleled network of routes currently connecting 45 destinations throughout Southern Africa. Source: Vanguard News Southern Africa’s premier airline, Airlink, has expanded its Latin American marketing and sales footprint to Ecuador, Panama, and Peru. AVIAREPS will represent and raise Airlink’s brand visibility in the three new markets and will support the airline’s drive to increase its share of inbound travel to Southern Africa from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, and Mexico, where Airlink already enjoys a presence. According to the Airlink CEO and Managing Director, Rodger Foster, “South America represents a significant market, not just for Airlink, but for businesses, entrepreneurs, and leisure travelers. South-South economic activity is increasing, i...

  Boeing Forecasts Latin America and Caribbean Region to Need 2,240 New Planes by 2041 With Latin American air travel outpacing the industry’s global recovery, Boeing has forecast the region’s commercial fleet to grow by more than 85% over the next 20 years, fueled by the strength of domestic and intra-regional travel. In total, the Latin American and Caribbean region will need 2,240 new airplanes by 2041, according to Boeing’s 2022 Commercial Market Outlook (CMO). Source: Travel News Asia The annual projection for commercial airplanes and services, forecasts that more than 2,000 single-aisle deliveries will more than double the current fleet to serve popular leisure routes between North America, Mexico and Caribbean, while also expanding intra-regional networks. As the fleet grows, demand for commercial aviation services will grow as well, reaching $165 billion in value over the forecast period. “Latin America has seen a strong recovery in air travel, particularly in dom...

  Rapyd Research Highlights Latin America as a Global Leader in Payments and Fintech New data from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru provides country-by-country analysis on preferred methods for workers to be paid; uncovers growing opportunity for global businesses to reach LATAM consumers in an increasingly digital world. Source: Business Wire Rapyd, the leading fintech-as-a-service partner, today released its 2022 Latin America State of Disbursements Report. The report analyzes the findings of a survey Rapyd conducted in June 2022 to more than 3,000 online consumers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru on their most-commonly used and preferred ways to get paid. The findings illustrate that with the region’s hypergrowth in local and cross-border business, LATAM is emerging as a primary market for expansion by global businesses. Contractors, workers and suppliers are seeking quick and secure payouts and disbursements in their preferred meth...

  DMCC and Panama’s Logis AgriLogistics Sign MoU to Facilitate Collaboration Between the Two Free Zones The MOU will see DMCC and Logis work together to explore potential areas of cooperation between the two free zones  . The two parties will work together to promote the development of commodities trading in both free zones. Source: DMCC DMCC – the world’s flagship free zone and Government of Dubai Authority on commodities trade and enterprise – has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Logis, an agri-logistic free trade zone that is being constructed in Panama. Once completed, Logis will be the largest free trade zone of its kind in Central and Latin America. The MOU will see DMCC and Logis work together to exchange knowledge and expertise to support the continued development of thriving commodities marketplaces in both free zones. The MOU was signed by Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, DMCC, and Sandro Salsano, President o...

  FreeYond disrupts the Latin American smartphone market with the F9 and M5 With the launch of the FreeYond F9, and the upcoming release of the FreeYond M5, FreeYond is entering the Latin American market as a challenger to the status quo. FreeYond brings the most cost-effective smartphone models yet to Latin America’s market with specs that match or surpass similar higher-priced offerings from other brands. New smartphone models: the most cost-effective at their respective price points  Source: Asia One Recently launched in October, the FreeYond F9 brings next-level value to the ~$100 price point, in a stylish package. The phone features a real dual camera, and the integrated design between the lens module and body achieves a striking visual unity often only seen in flagship smartphone models.   The phone’s specifications include: Dual camera (13MP main camera + 2MP macro camera) Up to 128GB memory 800M front camera (rare for smartphones at this price point) ...