Prometeo, the largest Open Banking API platform in Latin America, today announces the launch of Spark, a free program for startups, fintech companies, and small businesses that provides access to its infrastructure of banking connections with APIs in a region that has been historically underserved financially.
Any of the aforementioned companies are welcome to join the free program from Prometeo. They will have access to all of Prometeo’s fiscal and payment API connections in their country and be granted $5,000 for six months to test solutions, optimize and automate their internal processes, and expand the reach of their digital products.
As a Latin American startup, Prometeo has experienced banking infrastructure shortcomings, recognizes the power of fintech companies, and is convinced that financial inclusion should be the focus of technological infrastructure development. For that reason, they are passionate about providing these small companies with the necessary tools to allow them to scale so that a transparent and decentralized future of finance is in reach.
According to the World Bank, in Latin America, about half of the population does not have adequate access to any financial product. The knock-on effects of financial exclusion and unbanked or underbanked populations directly hinder companies to varying degrees, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) particularly taking a hit.
However, at the same time, the pandemic was the catalyst for fintech companies to multiply rapidly in the region – social distancing measures encouraged the digitization of transactions to replace face-to-face financial services. The use of innovative technologies escalated to the point that fintech companies have grown more than 40% in Colombia and 14% in Mexico.
“Since its establishment, Prometeo has taken on the challenge of lighting the way for financial innovation in Latin America, especially for startups,” said Ximena Aleman, Co-CEO at Prometeo. “We created Spark because, through our Open Banking infrastructure, we want to trigger a wave of transformation that will update and modernize public access to financial products. Simultaneously, startups will be able to access information about their users and digitize and automate their processes.”
