Eduardo Solano

🔄 📈 Some countries have seen massive banking consolidation over 25 years despite fintech disruptions, while others stayed surprisingly competitive. Let's explore ↓ Last week, we looked into the revenue models driving Mexico's banks. As we mentioned, Mexico's five largest banks control two-thirds of all national banking assets. Yet, by Latin-American standards, Mexico’s banking concentration is mild; only Argentina and Panama display more competitive asset shares. A key reason smaller institutions are staying in the race in Mexico is their hold on cross-border money—an area the five-bank metric doesn’t fully capture. Remittances into Mexico hit $65B last year, surpassing total foreign direct investment. Fintechs such as Bitso, Spin by OXXO, and Félix have tapped this stream, turning migrant dollars into sticky, low-cost assets. Before we look at how consolidation has shifted over time, it’s worth examining Panama’s banking scenario. Panama's impressive banking sector is well-regarded globally. The country has the largest international financial center in Central America, with total assets exceeding Panama's GDP by more than double. But only 60% of these assets are held by the country's five largest banks, demonstrating more competitiveness than any other country in Latin America. On the flip side, we have autocratic countries like Cuba and Nicaragua, where there are a handful of state-owned institutions that run the entire show. Beyond this, we see countries like El Salvador, Peru, and Uruguay, where a number of subsidiaries of foreign banks, such as BBVA and Scotiabank, dominate the local landscape. [story continues... 💌]

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🔵 🚀 RAPPI: The Super App is a Great Primitive Agentic Business! A fascinating reflection from my recent conversation with Federico Suarez Rendon Suarez on "𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐈 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐖𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤" (link in the comments) 𝐑𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐩𝐩, 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. Think about it - users tell Rappi what they want, and it orchestrates multiple services to fulfill that request. Sound familiar? 🚀 Why This Matters - The Numbers: • $1.3B revenue in 2024 from orchestrating services • 35+ million users across 9 countries • Break-even achieved - proving this model works • TIME's 2024 Most Influential Companies - recognition of their pioneering approach 🔗 The Primitive Agentic Blueprint: Single Interface, Multiple Services: . Food delivery → Financial services (RappiPay) → Travel bookings . E-commerce → Healthcare → 10-minute delivery via Rappi Turbo .𝐑𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫: Their concierge service where users say "I need X" and Rappi figures out how to get it done "To Rappi" something has become a verb across LATAM! Perfect primitive agentic examples: • "Print these documents for me" → RappiFavor finds a print shop, prints, delivers • "I need groceries" → Rappi determines best store, shops, delivers in 10 minutes • "Get me anything" → The famous "Rappi Antojo" button lets users request literally anything 💡 The AI Agent Evolution: Imagine Rappi + LLMs: Understanding context at scale, predicting needs, and orchestrating services with genuine intelligence rather than just rule-based routing. 🎯 The Takeaway: Rappi's $5.25B valuation proves there's massive demand for agent-like experiences. They've shown the market appetite. Do super apps like Rappi have an edge in our Agentic future? #AIAgents #SuperApp #LatinAmerica #fintech #Innovation #Rappi #OpenBanking #Agentic

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Pleased to announce that Forte Global has just launched in Peru - our sixth market. And we're also scaling up in current markets, including Colombia. As always, our goal is to be the backbone... the platform... the operating system... that enables world-class talent development. We make it super easy for any funder of education/training (whether governments, foundations, multinationals, or companies) to contract based on, track, verify and pay for outcomes - without the usual headaches and complexity. In Peru, we're working in partnership with Es Hoy to launch "ElevaTech" - a program to provide AI-focused digital training to disadvantaged Peruvians who would not otherwise have the opportunity to achieve their full potential. The focus of the AI training is on Cybersecurity, Data Science, and Data Engineering. AI will lead to massive job displacement over the next decade, but also create massive opportunities for those with the rights skills to take advantage of it. We're proud to help Peruvians thrive in this new AI era. Alejandro Jimenez T. Carolina Echeverri Hernández Ana Maria Roldan Arango Laura Torre Sergio Claux Mora

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