LatAm's most innovative companies

A Brazilian online bank, a giant electric scooter sharing platform and a Mexican delivery services recruiter took the three top spots as Latin America's most innovative companies of 2019, according to a report by Fast Company magazine.

Nubank, a Sao Paulo-based digital lender, was praised in the report for creating "banking solutions for populations that traditionally could not or did not access the five major banks in the country," as well as for becoming the South American country's sixth largest credit card issuer.

Last year, Chinese company Tencent purchased a 5% stake in the lender for US$180mn. Nubank was the only Latin American company to make the magazine's top 50 list of the most innovative companies in the world, in 36th spot.

Grow Mobility, the company created by the merger between Mexico City-based electric scooter sharing platform Grin and São Paulo's Yellow bike and scooter sharing company in January, came in at second place in Latin America.

"Grow now operates more than 135,000 vehicles in six countries and has aggressive plans for expansion in 2019," the report read.

Grow's users in Mexico can unlock the company's ubiquitous green electric scooters using the app of food delivery company Rappi and the company has said that it intends to take that functionality to other countries.

In third spot for Latin America, the magazine mentioned Apli, a platform created to address a shortage of delivery workers for restaurants that, according to the report, "is able to connect employers with recruits in as little as three hours." The company says on its website that it operates in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, Mexico's three largest metropolitan areas.

Brazilian home furnisher Magazine Luiza and Bogota-based delivery app Rappi complete Latin America's top five. The list also includes Argentine business services provider Cliengo, which offers customer chatbot solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, Brazilian mobile commerce company group Movile, Brazilian online payments company PagSeguro for its "Moderninha Smart" Android-based payment point of sale terminal, Panama's hospitality and co-working company Selina and Peruvian superfood producer and marketer Ecoandino.