Anzi Finance: the Latin American startup that chose Uruguay to expand its footprint in digital lending

Over the past two years, Anzi Finance has established itself as one of the pioneering startups offering guarantees against loan defaults in Latin America. Its model combines financial innovation with blockchain technology, enabling lenders to protect themselves against the risk of non-payment.

“If the company granting the loan does not receive payments from the borrower, we step in and cover up to a percentage of the loan value,” explains David Ramírez, CTO and co-founder.

Beyond its guarantee system, Anzi Finance develops technological infrastructure that allows other companies to build their own mechanisms against default. It is also advancing the integration of tokenized real-world assets as collateral for credit.

“For example, we are enabling farmers in Argentina to access credit using tokenized grains. We open lines of credit using those assets as collateral,” Ramírez says.

Founded by four partners from Uruguay, Mexico and Colombia, the company began operating in March of this year and already manages a portfolio of nearly US$4 million in secured loans. With an initial presence in Colombia, Anzi Finance is now expanding its operations to Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Its arrival in Montevideo comes as a result of securing access to a European investment fund specializing in blockchain, obtained through the Uruguay Innovation Hub’s Matching Fund program with the support of the local innovation ecosystem.

“We closed a deal with a Spanish fund and coordinated everything to apply to the program. The agreement was finalized for approximately US$250,000,” Ramírez explains.

The connection with Uruguay emerged, in part, at the South Summit in Madrid, where the Anzi Finance team reconnected with Uruguay XXI and learned firsthand about the tools available to support innovation and internationalization.

Ramírez, who relocated to Montevideo a month ago, is leading the development of the company’s technology hub in the country. “The goal is for Montevideo to become one of our three development hubs, alongside Bogotá and Madrid. We have already hired an operations manager and a blockchain developer, and we will continue expanding the team in Uruguay,” he says.

“From the beginning, we wanted to be a Latin American company for the world. And Uruguay has something very valuable: an ecosystem that truly works for scaling across the region. In addition, the ease of structuring the business and the availability of technical talent were key,” he notes.

He also highlights the strong collaboration between the public and private sectors. “I was impressed by how easy it is to arrive and start doing business, or access public-private tools. That level of coordination is not common in other countries in the region,” he adds.

Finally, the Colombian engineer points to the quality of life and balance he has found in Montevideo: “It’s a calm place, with an active business environment but without the chaos of large metropolises. And there is openness — a real willingness to collaborate, especially if you come from abroad. For us, it’s the ideal place to grow.”