I heard the news about Ualá — an Argentine neobank that just raised $195 million. The valuation is now $3.2 billion. That’s serious, considering they serve over 11 million people across Latin America. The round was led by Allianz X, plus Tencent, Soros Fund Management, and other heavyweight players.

Interestingly, Ualá initially launched crypto services in Argentina back in 2022, but then had to shut down due to regulatory restrictions. However, it seems the Central Bank of Argentina is now working on a solution to bring back crypto capabilities. Maybe Ualá will resume this area.

They plan to spend the new funds on expanding into other countries in the region. Plus, they are actively developing insurance and investment products in partnership with Allianz. In just a couple of weeks, they’ve issued over 300,000 insurance quotes. For Latin America, that’s a decent progress — the region is clearly underinvested, but the demand for financial services is huge.