LatAm ICT investment, financing watch

Latin America is expected to end 2022 with 25-30% growth in online/digital remittances to the region, according to Manuel Orozco, Washington-based director at the Inter-American Dialogue.

Overall, remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean are set to reach around US$150bn by year-end, up 14% compared with 2021, according to the think-tank. Of the total, 80% originate in the US.

The Inter-American Dialogue also said that there was a 10% increase in the number of remitters based in the US and an 18% hike in the number of transactions by migrants making remittances from that country.

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Brazilian insurance broker Alper acquired local insurtech Me Sinto Seguro for an undisclosed amount through its subsidiary AlperTech.

Direct investment in startups, including via acquisitions, is part of the company's growth strategy. This was Alper’s 14th acquisition. 

Me Sinto Seguro is focused on the agricultural sector and provides solutions for risk management and rural insurance policies, among others, connecting reinsurers, insurers, brokers and reseller channels and cooperatives.

Brazil has the largest concentration of insurtechs in Latin America. According to regional consulting firm Digital Insurance LatAm, the country had more than 33% of the region's 400 insurtechs as of January 2022. Latin America represents 7% of the world's total insurtech market.

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Grupo Credicorp's VC arm Krealo has invested an undisclosed sum in Colombian digital insurance startup Monokera, taking Krealo's investments in the region to six.

Monokera offers enterprises digital integrated insurance (embedded insurance) through open application programming interfaces (API).

Krealo was created in 2018 by Credicorp with the objective of investing in fintechs or insurtechs in the Andean region, targeting a market of more than 100mn people in Peru, Chile and Colombia.

Its portfolio includes the startups Culqi, Wally and Samishop in Peru, Tenpo in Chile and Monokera and Tyba in Colombia.

The Global Insurtech market is projected to grow from US$8.8bn in 2021 to US$166bn by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 39.1% from 2022 to 2030, according to a report by Acumen.

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RNP’s Visão 5G project for applications of technology in educational institutes has received approval to obtain financing from Brazilian research financing entity Finep, RNP announced.

The 5G initiative was developed by RNP in partnership with the Inatel institute and with researchers from the Rio Janeiro federal university. The estimated period for the implementation of the Visão 5G project is 24 months, covering projects in the country's southeast and mid-west regions.

According to RNP, the goal of the project is to develop a computer vision system that uses images from 5G cameras, associated with the use of IoT devices, for various applications on university campuses, such as detection and recognition of people for access control, automatic registration of presence in classes, among others. 

The application will also use data compression/decompression algorithms at the edge, said RNP.

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BrazilLAB, the Brazilian government's first govtech innovation hub, launched a new edition of its GovTech Startup Acceleration Program.

Startups can submit proposals for one of the following challenges: Digital Cities and Sustainability (Green GovTech); Digitization of Health Services (Health GovTech); and Tax Optimization and Efficiency (Tax GovTech).

Submissions can be made until January 30, the government said.