The Argentine fintech Ualá, founded by Pierpaolo Barbieri, announced an investment of US$20 million from Tether, as part of the US$197 million financing round announced in March. The operation incorporates the issuer of the stablecoin USDT into the group of shareholders of the company, which reached a valuation of US$3.2 billion.
The resources will allow Ualá to accelerate its growth and expand its financial ecosystem in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia, markets where the company already has more than 11 million users.
Tether expands its commitment to Latin America
The investment in Ualá adds to a series of recent moves by Tether in the region. Over the past few months, the company led a round in the Argentine platform Belo, announced an investment in the Brazilian exchange Mercado Bitcoin and previously acquired a majority stake in Adecoagro, expanding its strategy beyond the crypto ecosystem.
“We always want to be at the forefront of new products, but today we are a bank in all our markets and, given the regulatory environment in Argentina and Mexico, there will not be any type of stablecoin integration,” comments Barbieri.
Ualá maintains focus on Mexico and regional expansion
With the new capital, Ualá will continue to prioritize its growth in Mexico, a market where it identifies a great opportunity due to the low penetration of digital payments, while continuing to strengthen its operations in Argentina and Colombia.
At the same time, Barbieri assured that the Argentine operation has improved the quality of its credit portfolio in recent months, which would allow it to once again reach the break-even point and allocate a greater part of the capital to international expansion and the development of new financial products.
