The startup was founded earlier this year to build a fintech-as-a-service platform for Latin America. Its infrastructure aims to allow fintechs and embedded finance players to launch virtual accounts and issue prepaid and credit cards via “compliant” onboarding processes. It’s impressive just how many high-profile investors the young company has managed to attract in a short amount of time. The funding event comes after Pomelo raised a $1 million extension to its seed round in June that included participation from Sequoia Capital, Checkout’s Guillaume Pousaz, GGV’s Hans Tung and GoCardless’ Matt Robinson. The financing marked Sequoia’s first investment as part of its renewed interest in Latin America after taking a break from investing in the region and having previously backed the likes of Nubank and Rappi. Seven-month-old Pomelo may be in its initial stages, but it has so far landed four customers, including three fintechs and one embedded finance player. The remote-first fintech started in Argentina and has since launched operations and offices in Brazil and Mexico with plans to also expand to Chile and Colombia. In Argentina, it was granted a Mastercard and payments license.
Pomelo’s goal is to solve the problem by creating a new generation of financial services infrastructure that allows companies to build a fintech business and launch cards “much faster” throughout Latin America, is home to a financial services infrastructure that is “completely obsolete and highly fragmented.” The startup claims that its API-driven platform gives companies a way to build compliant onboarding processes, launch virtual accounts that are connected to the local financial systems and issue debit and credit cards throughout Latin America.