Driven by the growing demand for more agile and personalized financial solutions, the fintech market in Brazil and Latin America is booming recent research do District, the Latin American territory is home to approximately 2.7 thousand innovative companies that offer financial services, with Brazil concentrating 58% of this total, which is equivalent to about 1.6 thousand startups. In this context, the transactional business model is the one that stands out most, representing 35,91% of these startups, while SaaS occupies a significant position with 34,22%, reflecting the need for scalable and efficient technological solutions.

In rapid evolution, this environment has favored the emergence of innovative fintechs that offer answers to complex payment challenges, such as orchestration and subacquisition. In particular, Brazil has consolidated itself as a hub for these innovations, with startups developing technologies that improve operational efficiency and reduce fraud, facilitating the integration of multiple services into a single platform.

Among these fintechs, a Tuna Payments, founded in 2020 by former executives of Peixe Urbano and Groupon Latam, has stood out. The company offers multiple combinations of payment and anti-fraud providers, customizing its services according to the needs of each client. “Advances in this area have attracted large companies in retail, e-commerce and other sectors, which seek to optimize their financial operations through more profitable payment solutions”, says Alex Tabor, CEO of Tuna.

The industry outlook for the future is promising.The financial startups market is expected to continue to grow in Latin America, driven by accelerated digitalization and the need for more affordable and personalized financial services.These companies play a key role in transforming the financial sector, promoting inclusion and strengthening the digital economy in the region.

In addition to its economic impact, fintechs have a significant social role.In 2023, Brazil exceeded 1.2 billion active bank accounts, an increase of 14.2% compared to the previous year, indicating that 89.8% of Brazilians have some type of banking bond, according to the Idwall Ranking of Digital Experience, from Index in partnership with Cadarn consultancy. 

This inclusion also develops with payment methods administered by startups that act in the orchestration of these transactions. This management makes purchases more efficient. Alternatives such as PIX installment and installment payment, for example, allow consumers to be better organized financially, avoiding the accumulation of debt.

Thus, the expansion of services such as multi-acquisition and payment orchestration positions the fintech market to become even more relevant in the coming years, offering solutions that meet both the needs of companies and end consumers.

The disruptive characteristic of these companies goes beyond the simplification of the day-to-day business. Acting as alternatives to traditional banking institutions, these startups play a crucial role in transforming the financial and social scenario. In addition to introducing the necessary competitiveness to the market, fintechs also expand access to credit, especially through the granting of microcredit to small entrepreneurs and individuals who were previously excluded from the banking system.

One research Leticia Ferrarini, presented at the Ibero-American Congress on Business Law and Citizenship, reinforces this role of inclusion led by fintechs. The study highlights how the trend of reversing financial exclusion and the increasing engagement of people from less favored social classes in the financial system contributes to the development of the Brazilian economy and, consequently, to the improvement of the quality of life.

The term “human sustainability” is recent in the corporate world, but its meaning is not new. Assuming that people consumers, suppliers, partners, leaders and especially employees 5 are at the center of organizations, a paradigm shift must happen so that the human capital of organizations is seen and valued.

According to the global consulting firm Deloitte, human sustainability can be defined as the need for organizations to focus less on how people can benefit them and more on how organizations themselves can benefit these people. That is, it is a new approach in which companies start to create a sustainable corporate environment, allowing individuals to perform their roles in the best possible way.

According to the data collected from interviews with leaders, there is a gap between those who recognize the importance of this topic and those who exercise it on a daily basis. In the survey, 76% of respondents said they consider human sustainability important for the business, but only 46% reported to be implementing some measure in this regard, while other 10% already invest in large-scale actions.

So how do you put it into practice? The CEO of CKZ Diversity and author of the book “Vies Unconscious”, Cris Kerr explains that the first and most important step is to measure what are the impacts of a bad corporate environment for people in the company's results and how much it costs, in the end, absenteeism, demotivation, low productivity, turnover, consulting and training.

“One of the challenges for human sustainability is that one still privileges a look only at the technical results within companies and so people are evaluated. I remember a training I gave to an HR team on how the work environment can influence hormonal discharges. Soon after, two people resigned from this company, and the leaders brought complaints to me. My answer was that the problem was not training and not people, but most likely the leadership of”, comments the expert and pioneer in DIEP Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging.

According to Cris Kerr, it is common for people to reach leadership positions for their technical qualities and, when playing this role, present differences in behavioral issues. Often, managers forget the importance of holding individual meetings, giving constant feedback and creating a welcoming environment of empathy and inclusion. Instead, the focus is only on pressure for results.

“In another example, a leadership that participated in a training told me that he had many problems with the people on his team, both men and women had not been performing well. I soon asked: 'Do you have meetings with them? Have moments one-to-one?’. The person replied: I have meetings once with the whole team and I always say that if they have something urgent, they can look for me’, he says.

The CEO of CKZ adds that often, erroneously, managers convey an idea that they are super busy, that they do not have time for trivial matters. Thus, their teams end up preferring to do the wrong tasks than to talk and ask their questions. “This leadership did not do this because it was someone bad, but out of habit and because the organization never looked at its behavioral profile. Therefore, it is essential to bring training for inclusive leadership, in addition to include in performance evaluations, 360 feedback, in which all people are evaluated by all levels of the hierarchy, equally, complete Cris.

“In addition, it involves daily how to use more expressions like 'Congratulations on the delivery and 'thank you for the work’. Or, if the task needs adjustments, we need to correct the route a little, we will work together on it’. The culture of a company is mainly the way people behave. Therefore, human sustainability must be measured and placed as a goal in order to ensure a healthy environment so that people can return home better than when they arrived at work”, concludes the expert.

Therefore, human sustainability is directly related to the way companies treat the people in their business. This goes through a deep look of reevaluation of behavioral performance metrics of leadership and the impacts of turnover and absenteeism for company finances.