Brazil’s FinTech Ebanx Readies IPO, Eyes LatAm Acquisitions

Brazilian FinTech Ebanx is looking at acquisitions in Latin America as it prepares for a possible initial public offering (IPO), Bloomberg reported.

As part of its expansion, Ebanx would create a new platform called Ebanx One that would incorporate cross-border payments and local transactions, according to Bloomberg.

“We haven’t set a date yet, but we are taking this IPO readiness project very seriously, and Ebanx One is at the core of our business value,” Ebanx Co-Founder and CEO Joao Del Valle told Bloomberg.

Ebanx plans to be working in 15 countries in Latin America by the end of June, Bloomberg reported. Brazil, Mexico and Colombia and the largest operations.

“Our goal is to be seen as a gateway to LatAm markets for huge companies,” Del Valle told Bloomberg.

Del Valle said the company would likely look at a new funding round in 2021, Bloomberg reported. The company’s last funding round in 2019 valued it at more than $1 billion.

In March, PYMNTS reported that Ebanx planned to expand its operations in Central America, starting in Costa Rica. At the time, the company also planned to launch in other countries like El Salvador, Panama, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic in the first half of this year.

Ebanx Managing Director André Boaventura said at the time that the company wants to expand in Central America because the region is a fast-growing place for online shopping and digital payments.

Boaventura added that with Ebanx in the region, the companies can grow “their addressable market, but will also have a positive impact by expanding this population’s access to digital products and services.”

Ebanx was founded in 2012. Three years later, the company began expanding beyondBrazil to introduce its payments tools to Mexico and Peru. The company later rolled out in Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia and Uruguay.