Interesting news from Latin America. Argentine fintech Uala has just closed a funding round at $195 million with a valuation of $3.2 billion. The investors include some pretty serious players — Allianz X led the round, along with Tencent, Soros Fund Management, D1 Capital Partners, and a couple of other large funds.

What’s interesting is that the company already serves over 11 million users. It started in Argentina, then expanded to Colombia and Mexico, and now plans to develop even more actively across the region. It seems that the funds will be used for this — expanding into other Latin American countries plus strengthening insurance and investment services.

Founder Barbieri talks about the huge demand for financial services in the region, and it’s hard to disagree. Argentina and Colombia are markets with great potential but are not sufficiently covered by traditional financial systems.

One curious detail — Uala used to offer crypto services, but they were frozen due to regulatory changes. However, the Central Bank of Argentina is now considering allowing banks to work with cryptocurrencies, so this could change in the future. For now, the company is focusing on traditional fintech but is clearly preparing for new opportunities.