Exploring Brazil’s Fintech Revolution: Key Takeaways from Quona’s 2026 Brazil Fintech Trek

By Jonathan Whittle, Michel Zaidler, Kristin Sadler and Fernanda Rezende

“Quona’s Brazil Trek provided a rare, immersive look into one of the world’s most dynamic fintech markets — an invaluable opportunity to learn, connect, and benchmark against a rapidly evolving ecosystem.” - Fintech Trek Participant

Two weeks ago, Quona Capital hosted our 2026 Brazil Fintech Trek in São Paulo, bringing together global Quona portfolio company founders, LPs, and investors. Over three days, we explored Brazil’s thriving fintech ecosystem through curated panels and discussions, market immersion, and small-group networking, focusing on financial inclusion, digital public infrastructure, AI, digital assets, capital markets, and the growing global ambition of Brazilian founders.

Brazil has undergone one of the most dramatic financial system transformations of any country in the past decade, moving from an underbanked, oligopolistic system to one of the world’s most advanced digital financial ecosystems. After a decade of investing in Brazil, backing many of the country’s leading financial technology companies, we remain as convicted as ever about this market. The Trek was designed to unpack that evolution: why it happened, what it has enabled, and where the next decade of opportunity lies.

This blog breaks down what we learned across three days of sessions and immersion:

Fitnech Trek Opening Session; Visit to Creditas’ office; Small group visit to CDE households, organized by Plano CDE

Key Takeaways from Brazil’s Fintech Trek:

1. Brazil’s Digital Public Infrastructure (“Brazil Stack”) is Setting Global Benchmarks

• Pix, Open Finance, and Brazil’s fintech regulatory framework represent over a decade of deliberate, coordinated policy design, and the results are measurable. Pix processes $7T+ annually and is used by 93%+ of adults; Brazil’s Open Finance ecosystem generates 5x more API calls per month than the UK.
• The Brazil Stack has lowered barriers to entry and enabled new business models across payments, credit, and data, with tiered licenses, digital collateral registration, and real-time rails all compounding together.
• Other emerging markets are studying the Brazil model, from its approach to instant payments to its regulatory sequencing, making it a global reference point for financial infrastructure design.

2. Brazil Has Made Dramatic Strides in Financial Inclusion, But the Gap Between Access and Outcomes Remains

• Brazil has made remarkable progress on expanding access, moving from 56% to 86% adult account ownership since 2010, with fintechs now holding 55% of all current accounts. This was driven by a convergence of forces: Pix’s instant, zero-cost rails democratizing access, digital banks lowering barriers to account opening, and vibrant debt capital markets bringing millions of unbanked Brazilians into the formal system for the first time.
• There is early evidence that access is translating into financial health gains. Pix in particular has had an outsized impact — nearly 89% of micro and small businesses now accept Pix payments, with informal and small businesses benefiting disproportionately from its low cost and ease of use. But as reinforced by visits to low-mid incomehouseholds in peripheral São Paulo neighborhoods, trust, financial literacy, and product usability remain critical gaps between access and genuine financial health.
• The next frontier is expanding the breadth of financial services — credit, insurance, and investment products all remain significantly underpenetrated relative to other global markets. Increasing penetration needs to happen through products that are relevant and contextual enough to drive real usage and financial health outcomes: designed for variable incomes, thin credit files, and the behavioral realities of newly banked consumers. Financial infrastructure companies, by expanding access to data and lowering the cost of origination, have a critical role to play in making this possible.

3. Capital Markets Are the Hidden Infrastructure Layer Powering Fintech Lending

• Brazil’s private credit market is one of the most vibrant in the world, and it has been key to the scale and success of the fintech ecosystem. Receivables-backed securitized vehicles, known in Brazil as FIDCs, grew from $15B to $110B in a decade (22% CAGR), enabling fintech lenders to access scalable institutional funding and serving as a critical enabler of the lending boom.
• Infrastructure platforms are modernizing previously manual processes across deal structuring, custody, and verification, shortening timelines for the launch of new products and financing vehicles from months to weeks and allowing originators to recycle capital faster.
• Capital markets are expanding credit access to smaller lenders and underserved segments, with a deep local investor base seeking yield in Brazil’s high-rate environment supporting continued growth.

4. AI is Supercharging Fintech Operating Models

• AI is no longer a roadmap item in Brazil — it’s operational. Companies are deploying agents for customer support, collections, sales, and underwriting at scale. For example, Neon has shifted nearly all first-line customer service to AI; Kamino is using agents to automate treasury and payment workflows for mid-market businesses.
• Brazil’s infrastructure creates a uniquely fertile environment for agentic finance: real-time Open Finance data, near-universal Pix adoption, and 142 million daily WhatsApp users make it one of the most natural places in the world for conversational financial services to take hold.
• The most effective deployments combine strong internal data infrastructure with API-first architectures, allowing AI agents to integrate across banking systems, CRMs, and payment platforms, with LLMs increasingly enhancing underwriting, fraud detection, and risk management.

5. Digital Assets and Tokenization Are Moving From Pilots to Infrastructure

• Brazil recorded $319B in digital asset pay-ins in 2025 (up 110% YoY), with 90% of inflows stablecoin-related, primarily for payments and cross-border transfers. This is real utility, not speculation.
• Brazil’s regulatory framework, including the DREX CBDC pilot, VASP regulation, and tokenized capital markets sandboxes, allows digital asset providers to operate within the banking system, creating deeper integration than most markets have achieved.
• Stablecoins are becoming a key component of financial infrastructure, and financial institutions are actively exploring tokenized capital markets products including tokenized debt, funds, and collateral.

6. Brazil is Becoming a Global Fintech Innovation Exporter

• Brazil’s complexity has been its advantage. The fraud dynamics, regulatory demands, and increasingly sophisticated financial infrastructure that characterize the Brazilian market have produced world-class capabilities in real-time payments, credit infrastructure, and fraud prevention that are now influencing ecosystems across Latin America and beyond.
• Brazilian founders are increasingly born global, building products designed for multi-market expansion from day one and leveraging Brazil’s large domestic market to reach scale locally while expanding internationally.
• The exit environment is improving as the ecosystem matures: fintech IPO momentum is building, M&A activity is picking up from incumbents and global players, and financial sponsors are increasingly active in secondaries.

What’s Next?

“A curated tour of the fintech ecosystem in Brazil — something that would be very difficult to create for oneself.” — Fintech Trek Participant

“Great way to anchor a trip, get a full immersion (despite being reasonably fluent on ecosystem) and see many folks at once. The community aspect was incredibly efficient.” — Fintech Trek Participant

“Thanks for organizing such an amazing trek. It was great sharing with you and the selected group of founders, investors and LPs. It was a very interesting and enlightening week. One of the best value per day events I’ve been to.” — Fintech Trek Participant

Brazil’s fintech revolution is just getting started — and we’re excited for what’s ahead! 🚀

A huge thank you to our speakers, portfolio company founders, and fintech leaders who generously shared their time and insights, and to our sponsors for making this event possible.

Stay tuned for additional insights from the Brazil Fintech Trek, and let us know if you’re interested in joining us for future market immersion trips!