A study published by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) revealed the position of women in the Fintech industry and indicates that 15% of financial startups in Latin America they have gender inclusion in their work teams, which represents a growth of 9% compared to the last study.
The report also highlights that the percentage of fintech companies without women on their teams has dropped from 18% to 12%.
The positive move out of the gender gap in the ecosystem workforce is due in part to the increase in directors, founders and co-founders of the companies of 40%, carrying out corporate values aligned with the equitable representation of gender.
This trend contrasts with the fact that three quarters of the fintechs in the region that have teams with less than 50% participation of women. The destination of the investments made in the fintech sector in Latin America are 61% directed to financial technology ventures led by men.
Despite receiving a smaller amount of investment, startups with female participation seem to have a better performance than their counterparts. According to a Findexeable study, “for every dollar of funding received, female-founded fintechs generate $0.78 in revenue, while male-founded fintechs generate just $0.31.”
In Latin America, according to the study carried out by the IDB, Colombia has the highest rate of women in management positions or founders of fintech ventures with close to 42%, followed by Argentina with 35% and an increase of 24% compared to the previous report. Then there are Brazil and Mexicowith a third of all fintech startups having women in the founding core.
Chile, with 21% of women leading ventures in the fintech sector. In the Dominican Republic, 55% of fintech initiatives have a woman on the founding team, followed by Guatemala (47%) and Honduras (40%). Ecuador, which was one of the first five countries in the last report with 25%, has grown to achieve a representation of 50% in 2020.
However, Madeleine Clavijo explains that “of the 340 associated companies, so many only 17% are led by a woman and 3% were founded by a woman. We have financing challenges, raising capital and participation not only in the creation of companies, but in achieving gender equality”.
It also points out that the path towards gender equality in the business sphere continues to be a challenge in Latin America, but “fintechs are the opportunity to reduce the financial inclusion gap, and also participation in companies led by women.”
