The Business Magnate. Tatiana Fontalvo, Co-Founder and CEO, Fanki. Amidst the hustle and bustle of everyday life, the Sports Industry in Latin America has been booming lately. The sports sector is really popular at the moment and accounts for almost 90% of the population watching some sport virtually. With soccer/football taking the lead, basketball, baseball, volleyball, tennis, golf, hockey, and many other sports follow close behind. Latin America has an overwhelming fan base for its diverse sports and encouraging community that extends enormous support and cheer to players, clubs, and organizations from their countries. However, since the technological stability is at an average low in Latin America and still developing, a LATAMFintech company called Fanki was founded in Colombia with a vision to combine and bring together the Sports Industry and its fans. The Co-Founder and CEO – Tatiana Fontalvo established this company alongside Alan Kraus (the COO) in 2021, with its headquarters in Bogotá, Colombia.
This article will delve into how Colombia’s digital sports ecosystem was recognized as an opportunistic business venture by Tatiana Fontalvo, how she addressed a growing gap in Latin America between the Players, Clubs, and Organizations in the Sports Industry with their fans, and how this gap was addressed and bridged by creating a Fintech solution for the population.
Tatiana Fontalvo – The Vision and Mission:
Tatiana Fontalvo is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Fanki. Co-founded alongside COO – Alan Kraus, establishing the Fintech company in Bogotá, Colombia, in 2021, Tatiana successfully founded and created the first-ever digital ecosystem in the sports sector. A technology services website and smartphone application, Fanki helps to draw close the distance between the sports players, the various clubs, and organizations with their fans and users of the app, by offering multiple products, services, and experiences through loyalty programs, discounts, club points, and more. Likewise, the players, clubs, and organizations too benefit from Fanki in managing finances and budgets, tracking expenses, accessing data, providing insights, and allowing a much more intimate interaction with their fans.
Tatiana recognized the technological instability and poor ticketing system in Latin America’s Sports Industry. Therefore, she wanted to help sports fans and their clubs become more closer, interactive, bring in different and newer income streams, and ease their support and cheer for each other in a much innovative way. Additionally, a majority of Latin Americans over 70% don’t have personal banks or digital wallets for financial inclusion in Colombian sports and sports around the globe. Since the overall population interacts with their players and clubs more virtually than physically, the co-founder and her talented team created this digital ecosystem as a durable and ever-lasting connecting bridge.
The Fintech Solution:
The Fintech solution that Tatiana and her team came up with was a website and smartphone application called Fanki. By partnering up with renowned financial services like Mastercard and Powwi, a Fanki Mastercard Credit Card and Wallet were created for fans and users. Upon free registration on the website or app with just a Fan ID and a picture of your face, a Fanki Wallet and Club customized Mastercard with zero handling fees is created. The Mastercard can be loaded at any time from the balance in the Wallet and collected Club Points, providing free access and additional discounts and benefits for using digital money and making international purchases.
An added and primary product service by the Fanki app in Colombia is also to offer an improved fans and sports experience by allowing smooth and secured ticket purchasing processes and stadium accessibility directly from the website or app.
Fanki’s Investments and Sports Club Partnerships:
“The sports industry is very basic. Unfortunately, we have lagged in technological scalability, starting with its ticketing system. We came to elevate the experience of both the fans and the clubs,” said Tatiana Fontalvo, the Co-Founder and CEO of Fanki.
Having started in 2021, Fanki whose team is on a mission to revolutionize the digital ecosystem for sports in Latin America and an improved fan experience innovation in Colombia, successfully secured a seed fund from Broom Ventures, Tenacity Ventures, and Maraton Capitals in extending their support to this Fintech solution start-up business in Colombia with a $6 million investment fund. This money will be put into developing the digital platform and enhancing its features and product services to constantly provide an improved experience for fans in the sports industry and sector. Other investment funds provided to Fanki were from local partners like Truora, Rappi, and Frubana showing their loyal support to the start-up venture.
As of last year in 2023, Fanki formed alliances and partnerships with the following sports teams. In Soccer/Football – Club America, Celaya F.C., Mexican Professional Clubs, Corporación Deportiva Alianza Petrolera, Jaguares de Córdoba, Itagüí Leones, Real Cartagena. The World Boxing Council has also partnered up and formed strong alliances with Fanki the same year.
The start-up company today speaks on wanting the people to feel part of the family and draw them closer to their favorite teams, players, clubs, and organizations, and all of this through their technology – Fanki. The company is working on expanding operations to other countries through its digital fan engagement in sports from Colombia, providing access to its digital ecosystem and platform in international markets.