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Venezuelan FinTech Startup Fina Raises $1M to Expand Cloud Platform and Develop AI-Powered Financial Products for Merchants

The oversubscribed Seed round will help Fina expand its cloud management platform and build financial services for small Venezuelan merchants.

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Venezuelan FinTech startup Fina has raised $1 million in an oversubscribed Seed round to expand its business management platform and accelerate the development of credit and artificial intelligence products.

SquareOne Capital and Tomorrow Capital co-led the round, with participation from Norte Ventures, Platanus and Neer Venture Partners. The financing adds to signs of growing international interest in technology companies serving Venezuela’s small and medium-sized businesses.

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Investors From Four Countries Back Fina

The round brought together institutional and angel investors from the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Chile.

US-based SquareOne Capital and UK-based Tomorrow Capital led the financing. Brazil’s Norte Ventures, Chile’s Platanus and US-based Neer Venture Partners also participated.

The angel investors included Marcelo Lombardo of Omie, Jorge Ulloa of Bold, Rodrigo Tognini of Conta Simples, Gabriel Monroy of Colektia and Adriel Araujo of Hackmetrix, bringing experience from across Latin America’s FinTech sector.

Fina co-founder and CEO Enrique Rivas said the oversubscription suggests investors are becoming more willing to deploy capital in Venezuela. He added that the company views commerce as an important engine for the country’s economy.

Software Built for Venezuelan Merchants

Founded in 2024 by Rivas, Diego Aponte, Alejandro Fariña and Sebastián Sánchez, Fina offers a cloud-based management platform for small businesses.

The system brings inventory, sales, accounts receivable and payable, bank reconciliation and profitability reporting into one platform. It supports transactions and financial reporting in both bolivars and US dollars, reflecting Venezuela’s dual-currency commercial environment.

Fina charges $35 per month, converted at the official exchange rate set by the Central Bank of Venezuela. The platform is also designed to operate in low-connectivity environments and support businesses with small teams.

Its customers include hardware stores, auto parts shops, technology retailers, restaurants, bodegas and distributors, many of which previously relied on spreadsheets or handwritten records.

Fina now serves more than 5,000 active merchants and reports annual recurring revenue approaching $2 million. Before the latest Seed round, the company had secured previous investments of $100,000 and $350,000.

Credit and AI Drive the Next Phase

Over the next six months, Fina plans to concentrate on financial products and AI-based services.

A central part of that strategy is its recently launched credit vertical for small businesses, which the company says is doubling in size month over month. A pilot lending programme conducted with a Venezuelan bank recorded almost no defaults, supporting Fina’s view that formal, digitised merchants represent a viable lending market.

Before founding Fina, Rivas and Aponte launched Caracas Ron, a delivery ecommerce company that expanded during the pandemic. Their new venture is now moving beyond administrative software toward becoming a broader financial infrastructure provider for merchants.

The round follows Cashea’s $100 million raise earlier this year and comes as payments in Venezuela have become almost entirely digital. Fina plans to build on those shifts before pursuing wider expansion across Latin America.

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Brazilian Startup Plinq Raises $250K in Seed Funding to Expand Background Check App for Women

Led by Spectra Investments, the funding will support Plinq’s mobile app and its move from individual searches to a subscription service.

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Brazilian startup Plinq has raised about $250,000 in its first funding round, led by Spectra Investments. Angel investors also participated, including Anton Osika, Liana Selles, Fernando Montera and José Gerardo Carrero. The dollar amount is an approximate conversion of the R$1.3 million round announced in August 2026.

Plinq helps women search publicly available judicial records when checking the background of a potential romantic partner. Founded in 2025 by CEO Sabrine Matos, the company plans to use the investment to develop its mobile app and expand its ten-person team.

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How Plinq’s Background Checks Work

Users enter a person’s name and phone number, and Plinq searches public sources, including court records and official publications, to compile a report. The company says its web platform attracted more than 60,000 users and processed nearly 85,000 searches during its first year.

Matos founded Plinq after learning of a femicide case in which the perpetrator had faced multiple domestic violence proceedings that the victim reportedly did not know about. The startup’s aim is to make existing public information easier to find and understand before a relationship begins.

Plinq says 10% of the risk alerts identified by its platform relate to domestic violence records. Those alerts reflect information found in public databases; a search result alone cannot establish a person’s current conduct or guarantee someone’s safety.

Mobile App and Subscription Plans

When the round was announced, Plinq said it planned to launch a women-only mobile app in early September 2026 and replace one-off web searches with a monthly subscription. The proposed app includes identity checks using facial recognition. The launch date was a company plan at the time of the funding announcement; the cited report does not confirm that the app has since launched.

Plinq aims to reach one million active users within six months of the app’s launch. For 2027, it has outlined further features, including a way for users to alert nearby women if they feel at risk during a date. It is also considering services for Brazilian women living abroad. These remain expansion targets rather than existing features or user figures.

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Brazil-Based AI Startup Nuvia Raises $1.8M to Expand AI Sales Agents Across Latin America

Amador Capital and Nascent led the round, which will support product development and commercial growth.

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Brazilian startup Nuvia has raised $1.8 million in a funding round led by Amador Capital and Nascent. Existing investor NXTP participated alongside Crivo Ventures, Delusional Capital and investors brought together through Spectra Investimentos. Nuvia plans to use the capital to develop its platform, strengthen its team and expand in Brazil and other Latin American markets.

Nuvia develops AI agents for sales and customer service. Its platform brings conversations from WhatsApp, Instagram, voice calls, websites and email into one system and connects them with customer relationship management tools. The aim is to help businesses respond to enquiries, qualify prospective customers and carry conversations through more complex sales processes.

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Building a presence beyond Brazil

Nuvia is focusing on markets where companies handle large volumes of customer conversations, particularly through WhatsApp. Most of its customers are currently in Brazil, but the company also serves clients in Mexico, Colombia and the Iberian Peninsula. The new funding will help it grow its sales and marketing operations as it pursues a wider Latin American customer base.

The startup says its agents can support tasks that extend beyond answering routine questions. In one example cited by the company, retailer Chocolat Du Jour handled approximately 25,000 customer interactions during an eight-day Easter period, with AI agents managing 91% of the conversations. These figures describe that customer’s reported use of the platform, rather than a result Nuvia has demonstrated for every deployment.

Founded in 2024, Nuvia is led by CEO John Paz, a former Brazil general manager at fintech Pomelo. The latest round follows an earlier raise of about $1.7 million, bringing its disclosed funding to approximately $3.5 million. Reports differ on the date of that earlier round, so the total is more useful here than assigning it a specific month.

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Brazil-Based EdTech Startup Premia Raises $975K to Expand AI-Powered Learning Platform and Pursue Acquisitions

The company’s first external investment has been followed by its acquisition of Aulapp, extending its reach into corporate education.

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Brazilian education technology company Premia has raised approximately $980,000 in its first external funding round from an undisclosed family office with interests in education. The investment will support product development, hiring and acquisitions as the company expands beyond its existing school and higher education business.

Premia previously funded its operations without outside investment. Its platform uses AI to assess students’ progress, identify learning gaps and help educators tailor their support.

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AI Tools for Schools and Universities

Premia says its platform uses 18 proprietary AI models designed for educational tasks. The technology analyses how students interact with learning materials and provides information that teachers and institutions can use to guide instruction.

According to the company, its products have reached 3.8 million users across 400 Brazilian municipalities and have been used by more than 4,500 teachers. Premia has also reported improvements in student performance, although the figures provided do not establish how much of that improvement can be attributed to the platform alone.

Acquisition Opens Corporate Education Market

Premia said it would use part of the investment to acquire businesses that add products or customers to its platform. It has since acquired Aulapp, an education business serving schools and companies. The value of that transaction was not disclosed. The acquisition makes Premia’s planned move into corporate education a current part of its expansion, rather than only a future objective.

The company also plans to strengthen its commercial and technology teams. Over the next two years, it aims to reach more than 20 million users, expand to 1,500 municipalities and support over 40,000 teachers. Those are company targets, not current operating figures.

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