Argentina Food Export

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina’s central bank on Thursday approved digital banking startup Uala’s acquisition of rival Wilobank, the final hurdle to a deal that grants the Argentine “unicorn” greater scope in its quest to expand its financial services in Latin America.

The deal, which was struck last year, will give Wilobank owner Eduardo Eurnekian a stake in Uala, an application that offers an accessible payment system for people without a fixed income or who are outside the formal banking system.

 

“It’s a big milestone, something that fills us with pride. We became the first fintech to acquire a banking license,” the company’s chief executive Pierpaolo Barbieri told Reuters, referring to a license within Argentina.

The deal will allow Uala to carry out operations only permitted in the country to banking entities, such as the payment of salaries and pensions, Barbieri said.

Uala, which is valued at $2.45 billion and has more than five million clients across Latin America, recently invested $80 million in its operations in Colombia, after acquiring the Mexican bank ABC Capital in a 2021 deal that has yet to be approved by local regulators.

Uala, which recently closed an investment round for $350 million, has previously drawn funding from Chinese tech giant Tencent and SoftBank, the Japanese technology investment giant.