Singapore FinTech firm Thunes expands further into Latin America

Thunes, a Singapore-based fintech company, said Tuesday it is speeding up its global expansion with the setting up of a regional hub in Miami to expand into new Latin American markets.

This development follows the company’s recent announcement ramping up its presence in Greater China.

“Thunes is actively expanding into new markets and regions and becoming a truly global player. Given the exciting opportunities in Latin America and the Caribbean, we are expanding our team and technology to build a robust and inclusive payments infrastructure. Our goal is to become a large payments platform in the region, making interacting with, managing and accepting cashless payments as fast and effortless as possible,” Thunes Chief Commercial Officer Aik Boon Tan said in a statement.

Thunes recently appointed Jenna Wyer, Senior Vice President for the Americas, who will leverage her experience in the mobile payments and e-commerce space to spearhead Thunes’ growth strategy in Latin America and set up partnerships with leading local digital payment players.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to build new strategic partnerships and drive Thunes’ continued expansion across Latin America’s vibrant markets. Fintech solutions like ours are playing a pivotal role in the development of the region’s economic activities, bringing vast benefits to millions of businesses and consumers. The demand for smooth and easy payments is accelerating in Latin America, and Thunes is looking to address this opportunity,” said Jenna Wyer.

According to Thunes, two trends will drive this growth: online shopping is booming – Latin America saw the world’s fastest-growing retail e-commerce sales growth in 2020, and a rising number of these online purchases are not local; mobile payments are gaining momentum, with smartphones acting as banks for millions of people in Latin America who do not have access to a traditional bank account.

It opined that the next three years will see around 100 million additional smartphone connections, taking the total to 532 million by 2025 – an adoption rate of 80 percent.

Thunes has established regional payout partnerships available in 16 Latin American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Uruguay.

It recently launched partnerships with Brazil’s Bexs Banco to enable real-time businesses and customers inbound payments to Brazil. Thunes Collections capabilities cover 90+ alternative payment options in the region, including Boleto in Brazil, Rapipago in Argentina, and SafetyPay in Colombia. This increased flexibility enables more options for businesses and consumers to make cross-border transactions.

Thunes is a business to business (B2B) company that powers payments for the world’s fastest-growing businesses. Through a single, simple connection, consumers and businesses can send payments to – and get paid in – every corner of the world. Thunes currently supports 79 currencies, enables payments to 126 countries, and helps to accept 285 payment methods. Thunes is headquartered in Singapore with regional offices in London, Paris, Shanghai, New York, Dubai, and Nairobi.

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