The names of the three most promising fintech companies who have won the first Innotribe Startup Challenge for Latin America have been announced. The event was held in Mexico City on Wednesday 29 June, in partnership with SWIFT’s Latin America Regional Conference (LARC).

The winners include Mexico-based lending as a service (LaaS) platform providing a suite of student loan services Quotanda, Chile-based Destacame that aims to improve access to credit and other financial services for individuals and SMEs currently excluded from the financial system, and Mexico-based digital currency exchange Bitso.

Founded in 2014, Bitso main objective is to bring the benefits of bitcoin technology to Mexico and Latin America, prioritizing security, transparency and best operating practices while opening new paths to develop innovative products. It connects Mexico's traditional banking infrastructure to the new digital era of bitcoin and blockchain for international cross border payments. In April, Bitso incorporated Ether trading into its platform.

“Incredibly honest and helpful feedback. An amazing opportunity to present to so many relevant and smart people, we are very honoured and excited about the opportunity,” says Daniel Vogel, Co-Founder & President.

Winners of this year’s challenge received a 10,000 USD cash prize and invitations to attend Sibos, SWIFT’s annual global financial services conference, taking place from 26-29 September in Geneva. The startups will get an opportunity to share the stage with FinTech experts, providing great insights on innovation happening in Latin America to the financial industry at large.

“It was great to run our first Startup Challenge in Latin America, strengthening collaboration between banks and the FinTech community in the region, and to welcome a new group of promising companies to the Innotribe programme. Congratulations to all participants, we wish them lots of success in their future developments”, Fabian Vandenreydt, Global Head of Securities Market, Innotribe and the SWIFT Institute at SWIFT, said.

Launched in 2011, Innotribe Startup Challenge’s mission was to bring visibility to activities of emerging companies and highlight their revolutionary way to think and work. The 2016 Innotribe Startup Challenge focused on supporting emerging FinTech ecosystems where demographic trends, economic growth and regional integration projects are creating fertile ground for new technologies to emerge.