In a press release, The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has announced that it will finance a Salvadoran Startup with 750 thousand dollars to promote the development of digital payments in Central America.
Cubo will be the startup that will receive the investment in order to promote the development of this type of payment in micro and small businesses in countries such as Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica.
This investment is a search to contribute to reduce the gap in financial inclusion. The ad states that:Created two years ago in El Salvador, Cubo offers an easy-to-use solution for MSMEs to accept payments with credit or debit cards, links for quick payments and QR codes for digital payments that can be physically printed or shared digitally.”.
In the same way, the statement explains that the users of the platform developed by the FinTech company are: “the majority (90%) micro-entrepreneurswith a turnover that does not exceed USD 230 per month”.
From the IDB they consider that Digitization continues to be a challenge for micro, small and medium-sized companies in Central America. In fact, they indicate that in “in some countries there is an average of 11 mobile points of sale for every thousand inhabitants, half of those in other countries in our region”.
For this reason, they consider that this investment, together with others that they will continue to make, are for spread the use of digital payments and collections, regardless of whether this takes place in person, remotely or online. They also consider that the inclusion of these payment methods is a valuable tool to increase the flow of business in this type of company.
They stressed that “the startup aims to consolidate its market in El Salvador and expand in Guatemala, Panama and Costa Rica this year, before new rounds of financing that allow it to launch into other Central American and Caribbean countries”.
Irene Arias, manager of IDB Lab said that: “Fintechs have become key agents in helping us move towards greater financial inclusion and digitization in our region. This investment in the technology startup Cubo combines our efforts to boost the nascent Central American entrepreneurial ecosystem with the promotion of accessible and efficient financial services that can improve the business prospects and income of micro-entrepreneurs.”.
El Salvador is back on the radar, but this time in the IDB investment roundwhere they have stated that “It is the first investment by IDB Lab in a Central American fintech, and a part of the resources come from the We-Fi program, an initiative that seeks to address the restrictions faced by small and medium-sized companies in developing countries led by women”.
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