The archive · Money & Fintech · Strategic decision · 2017–2025
Ualá's phone-banking bet on LatAm's unbanked: $300M Series E led by Allianz X
Argentina's neobank bet mobile apps could bank the unbanked through inflation; a $300M Allianz X-led round at $2.75B, then an $66M extension.
Ualá
What the business is
Latin American neobank offering prepaid cards, loans, investments and payments through a mobile app, with its own AI-based credit scoring (UaláScore).
How it started
Pierpaolo Barbieri founded Ualá in October 2017 in Buenos Aires, betting that a mobile app could deliver basic banking to Argentines who were underbanked in a high-inflation economy. The company became a unicorn after a US$350M Series D in 2021 and expanded into Mexico and Colombia.
What happened
By 2024 Ualá had about 8 million users across Argentina, Mexico and Colombia and had built UaláScore, an AI credit-scoring tool powered by transaction data. In November 2024 it closed a US$300M Series E led by Allianz X — which Ualá called the largest private capital raise in Latin America in three years — at a US$2.75B post-money valuation, with Allianz also opening an insurtech partnership. In March 2025 Ualá extended the round with US$66M, adding TelevisaUnivision, bringing the total to US$366M and the post-money valuation to about US$2.81B.
How it ended up
Still scaling: the funds are earmarked for growth in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia, where Barbieri said Ualá aims to become a leading bank; he framed the raise as Argentina 'exporting' digital financial products across Latin America.
Background
Ualá was founded in Buenos Aires in October 2017 by Pierpaolo Barbieri on the bet that a mobile-first neobank could bring basic financial services to Latin Americans who had been left out of the traditional banking system — starting in Argentina, where inflation and a large cash economy made the gap acute.
The model started with a prepaid card and app, then expanded into loans, investments and payments. Ualá became a unicorn after a US$350M Series D in 2021 and pushed into Mexico and Colombia, reaching about 8 million users across the three countries, with its own AI-based credit scoring, UaláScore, built on transaction data.
In November 2024 Ualá closed a US$300M Series E led by Allianz X, the investment arm of Germany's Allianz — the largest private capital raise in Latin America in three years, at a US$2.75B post-money valuation. The round included Tencent, Ribbit Capital, Stone Ridge, Pershing Square Foundation, SoftBank's LatAm fund and others, and opened an insurtech partnership with Allianz.
In March 2025 Ualá extended the round by US$66M with TelevisaUnivision joining, bringing total proceeds to US$366M and the valuation to about US$2.81B. Barbieri said the funds would accelerate growth in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia, where the company aims to become a leading bank.
What has to be true
- Argentina's inflation and thin banking penetration created a wedge: a transparent app account was strictly better than cash, so acquisition stayed cheap even as the economy contracted.
- Ualá treated each market as a repeatable playbook — Argentina's product was exported to Mexico and Colombia rather than rebuilt, which is why one round could fund three countries.
- Allianz X's participation was strategic, not just financial: it opened insurance distribution in a region where most users have no coverage at all.
- The raise happened when most LatAm startups could not raise at all, showing that investors still fund proven unit economics and large user bases even in a drought.
What can be applied
In high-inflation, underbanked markets, the winner is cheaper and more transparent than cash; Ualá's next growth lever was a strategic insurer partner, not just more credit.
Aftermath
As of March 2025 Ualá operates in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia with roughly 8 million users, and plans to use the combined US$366M to deepen its financial ecosystem — including the insurtech line opened with Allianz — and to pursue banking leadership in each market. Barbieri framed the round as Argentina exporting financial products across Latin America, and the company has kept growing rather than contracting.
Sources
- Empresa de tecnofinanzas Ualá capta 300 millones de dólares en ronda liderada por Allianz
- Ualá capta 66 millones de dólares en extensión de ronda de inversión
- Milbank Advises Allianz X on Ualá's $300M Series E Investment Round
- Here are Latin America's biggest startups based on valuation
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