Tencent the latest to take stake in Argentina’s Uala app
The venture is one of Tencent’s few in Latin America, after it announced a $90m investment in Brazil’s Nubank in October
Buenos Aires — Chinese internet giant Tencent is taking a stake in Argentina’s mobile payments app Uala, adding to previous investments by Goldman Sachs and billionaires George Soros and Steve Cohen. The equity investment will be used to continue developing the fintech company in South America’s second-largest economy, according to founder and CEO Pierpaolo Barbieri. The venture is one of Tencent’s few in Latin America, after it announced a $90m investment in Brazil’s Nubank last October. The move comes as Argentina transits a recession and soaring inflation following a currency crisis in 2018. Foreign direct investment has dropped amid investor jitters as the country heads into a presidential election in October. “Tencent invests because it’s betting on what will happen in Argentina over the next 10 years, rather than what will happen in the next six months,” Barbieri said in a phone interview from Buenos Aires. Barbieri declined to disclose the amount of the investment. Uala has i...
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