Santander InnoVentures, the venture capital arm of Santander Bank, has invested $6 million in Mexican fintech ePesos.
InnoVentures was the leader in the round, though VilCap Investments, Finlab, and Pomona Impact also invested. This investment marks the first Santander’s venture fund has ever made in Latin America.
The fund was launched in 2014 and has invested in 17 fintech startups, but previously these investments had been for companies headquartered in Europe or North America (which are also the main regions where Santander operates).
A mobile payments startup for small businesses, specifically those were are underbanked, ePesos offers short-term capital without the need of a bank account; rather, users both receive and repay these funds through the company’s mobile wallet.
Read more at Finextra and el Periódico (Spanish).