Warren Buffett's $1 billion bet on Nubank🇧🇷💸; Major card issuers dive into account-to-account payments to stay ahead of the pack 🏦; FinTech for e-commerce entrepreneurs? 🤔

Good Morning FinTech, February 16

Good day Everyone,

And happy Wednesday! Today is February 16, and in Lithuania🇱🇹 we celebrate State Restoration Day. I want to use this opportunity and invite you to take a moment and think about why freedom is important to you because many of us take it for granted while there are still places in the world where people are severely suffering.

And now let’s dive into 3 super interesting FinTech stories that you cannot miss today:

Warren Buffett's $1 billion bet on Nubank🇧🇷💸

The news 🗞 Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has dumped a portion of its Visa and Mastercard holdings and increased exposure in Nubank, the largest FinTech in Brazil and the biggest challenger bank in the world by customer count.

More on that 👉 In a securities filing late February 14, the industrial conglomerate run by the legendary investor disclosed that it had purchased as much as $1 billion worth of Nubank Class A stock in Q4/2021. This adds to $500M invested in the startup in July 2021, before it IPOed.

While the purchase is not super surprising, given Buffett’s earlier commitment to Brazil’s FinTech star, the interesting piece lies within the sell-off. Berkshire has thus sold $1.8B and $1.3B worth of Visa and Mastercard stock, respectively, which potentially signals the Oracle’s of Omaha a shift away from incumbent credit companies to gain exposure in fresh and promising FinTech startups.

Zooming out, Buffett’s move is important not only for Nubank but also for the FinTech & crypto sector in general. Here’s the takeaway: