Context: With the rise of embedded finance, there is often the underlying question of whether embedded finance is ‘better’ than traditional fintech offerings. In Latin America, we are currently seeing two companies head-to-head that represent this question perfectly: Brazilian Nubank is the biggest neobank in Brazil and likely one of the biggest success stories of a neobank in the world. On the other side is Mercado Libre, an e-commerce provider headquartered in Uruguay that operates in 18 different countries. I covered Mercado Libre’s different fintech activities in the past.
My comment: This PYMTS article highlights the competition between the two very different players: both companies have been highly successful over the past few years and are targeting similar countries. With the further push of Mercado Libre into the world of embedded finance and fintech, the two companies face some unusual competition. Mercado Libre is also not shy of the competition, claiming that it “can become the biggest digital bank in the Latin American market.”
