Pomelo, an Argentine startup specializing in payment solutions, recently secured USD $40M in a Series B funding round. This Buenos Aires-based company, founded in 2021, focuses on enabling fintech companies and financial service providers to create virtual accounts and offer prepaid and credit cards. Their services emphasize compliance and efficient customer onboarding.
The company began operations in January 2022, initially offering prepaid products in Argentina. Since then, Pomelo has broadened its scope, allowing both local and international businesses to provide various card services, including prepaid, debit, and credit cards in multiple countries. This expansion is achieved through a streamlined technological approach, which Pomelo claims is more cost-effective and quicker than traditional methods.
Pomelo's CEO and co-founder, Gastón Irigoyen, highlighted the company's rapid market entry capabilities, claiming their processes are significantly faster than conventional ones, often taking only weeks. Pomelo handles regulatory and operational complexities for its clients, easing their entry into new markets.
Currently, Pomelo serves over 100 corporate clients, including banks, multinational corporations, and tech startups like Rappi, Bitso, Stori, Nomad, PayJoy, Ripio, and AstroPay. The company has seen a threefold increase in revenue in 2023 compared to 2022 and anticipates further growth. In 2023, its total payment volume grew sevenfold, with the capacity to process 55 million transactions daily.
Pomelo's client base includes global companies seeking to expand into Latin America. The company provides these clients with a straightforward path to the Latin American market through its infrastructure.
The latest funding round, led by Kaszek with contributions from monashees, Index Ventures, S32, TQ Ventures, and Endeavor Catalyst, brings Pomelo's total funding to USD $103M since its inception. Irigoyen did not disclose the company's current valuation but indicated that the funding round was positive. Previous funding includes a USD $35M Series A round in October 2021, a USD $18M extension in August 2022, and a USD $9M seed round in May 2021.
Pomelo's services encompass card issuing, processing, and transaction management. The company leverages licenses from networks like Visa and Mastercard to facilitate card issuance for its clients. Recently, Pomelo has been focusing on developing its credit card management platform, a software tool designed to oversee credit card operations.
With 265 employees, Pomelo plans to use the new funds to expand its operations, particularly in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. Nicolas Szekasy, co-founder and managing partner of Kaszek, praised Pomelo's rapid growth and significant impact in the Latin American payment infrastructure sector. He will join Pomelo’s board of directors as part of the investment.
