Payments technology company Akua secured an investment of more than US$4 million in its seed roundwith the promise of transforming the processing infrastructure of payments global.
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This support will allow the construction of the first “as a service” acquiring processing platform with direct connection to the most relevant payment methods in the region. It will be characterized by being completely cloud-native, highly secure, operated in real time, and powered by artificial intelligence. Technology will set a new standard in efficiency and trust for financial institutions and businesses.
Paytech was recently founded by three recognized leaders in the technology sector, who have more than 45 years of combined experience in the payments industry. One of them is the Colombian Carlos Marín, who played key roles in PayU and Mastercard, leading acquisition and issuance strategies, in addition to launching the Pomelo operation in the Andean markets.
The other two founders of the technology company are: the Uruguayan Juan José Behrend, responsible for building technology in companies such as dLocal, Pomelo and PedidosYa; and Brazilian Rodrigo Rodrigues, who led neobank development for Mastercard in Brazil, launched Movii’s acquiring vertical and led the global card operation for Jeeves.
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It should be taken into account that, in Latin America and in the world, the rails through which the largest number of payment transactions are processed were built more than 30 years ago and are still in use today. This has led to the ecosystem operating with an inefficient and fragmented payment infrastructure, which provides opportunities for companies like Akua to transform the market.
“Akua will allow acquirers, payment aggregators, orchestrators, gateways, processors and large businesses to overcome the current inefficiency of payment systems by facilitating their renewal and technological verticalization, in a business that needs an update from its core”says its CEO, Carlos Marín.
“We will be the first to offer a platform for the processing of any regionally integrated payment rail, with the purpose of bringing efficiency, productivity and immediacy to consumers through the organizations that serve them”he added.
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With this innovation, they hope to significantly reduce operating costs for the entire ecosystem, improve payment approval rates, decrease fraud rates, and provide consumers with a faster and more secure shopping experience.
Bet on innovation
With this financing, Paytech will be working on launching its platform in Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Chile and Brazil. In a first phase, it will enable card payment processing in direct connection with Visa and Mastercard and then include other alternative payment methods.
The seed round was led by prominent investment funds with regional and global reach, including Propel, H20, Rally Cap, Flourish Ventures, Plug & Play and ICVentures along with high-impact angel investors in the payments ecosystem with experience in companies such as Mastercard, dLocal, Jeeves and Nubank, consolidating the necessary support for the ambitious fintech project.
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“This is the right team to offer scalable, secure and efficient payment processing solutions for LatAm. Harmonizing the noise between merchants, card networks and acquirers is key to unlocking business value and growing the new digital economy”said David Mort of Propel.
From H20, a Latin investment fund, they highlighted that: “There is a huge demand for innovation in the region. Payment aggregators, gateways and banks are eager for advanced solutions that improve acceptance rates, increase service availability and increase their revenue. We see a huge opportunity for those who can solve this “The team is building that solution; they have strong industry experience, and we are happy to provide them with the support they need to continue executing.”.
Founded a few months ago, Akua already has more than 20 collaborators spread across various Latin American countries, of which 90% are engineers from the best technology companies worldwide.
“We are excited to lead a new era by taking the payment acceptance rails in Peru to the next level,” commented Marín, “This investment round will allow us to accelerate our growth and offer merchants, acquirers, and different actors in the ecosystem, a “robust, innovative and reliable solution that will radically change the way payments are managed”he highlighted.
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