Spanish telecom giant Telefónica recently announced its latest moves for the year, including participating in a funding round for San Francisco, California-based fintech GrabrFi, as well as announcing it will participate in 4YFN, one of the world’s largest startup competitions that takes place at Mobile World Congress 2024.
Wayra participated in the recent €2 million investment round closed by GrabrFi, a fast-growing financial services company. GrabrFi allows people to open an online account in US dollars, without the need to travel or be a US resident.
Millions of people from all over the world wish to have access to US banking and the US consumer market for various reasons. Having a US bank account enables users to receive international payments, send or receive remittances, purchase airline tickets, pay for subscriptions, and much more.
Interestingly, it’s not just spending, but saving that’s also attracting foreigners to US bank accounts. Currently, more people are interested in saving in dollars as a protection against unexpected events such as high inflation in their countries or macroeconomic uncertainty around the world.
GrabrFi is currently available in 14 countries, including Spain, and is well-received due to these benefits. Following the recent round of funding supported by Wayra, the next step is to expand the fintech’s reach into Latin America. Currently, only users in Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, and Brazil can open an account on the platform.
“We are excited and enthusiastic about Wayra’s support as it allows us to accelerate our vision of connecting and transforming opportunities in Latin America. With their help, we will be able to expand in the region and beyond, and establish partnerships with like-minded companies to enhance our product offering to existing and new customers,” said Artem Fedyaev, founder and CEO of GrabrFi.
The funding round was led by Gokul Rajaram, a board member of Pinterest, Doordash, and Coinbase, along with other prominent European and US investors, including Kintxo Cortés, Bruno Grandi, Dídac Lee, and Manuel Matés.
Wayra at MWC 2024
In a separate announcement, Wayra said it will once again be present at 4YFN, the upcoming entrepreneurial ecosystem event to be held at the Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona, from February 26 to 29.
During the event, Wayra will organize its own agenda consisting of various activities such as talks, presentations, and panel discussions.
In addition, the event will also feature the participation of startups from Wayra’s portfolio and strategic partners, all of whom will work together to promote entrepreneurship.
The event will provide a great opportunity to showcase the potential of startups and promote entrepreneurship during one of the most important events in the world.
