Akuaa payment processing platform based in Latin America, managed to secure an initial investment of $4.3 million.
Propel led the funding round, with additional contributions from Plug and Play, HTwenty, RallyCap, Flourish Ventures and ICventures. The investment round also included high-impact angel investors with previous roles at companies like Mastercard, dLocal, Jeeves and Nubank.
Akua sets a new standard in the region by developing the first “as a service” acquisition processor platform. This platform is cloud-native, highly secure, operates in real-time and integrates AI to streamline operations for financial institutions and merchants in Latin America.
The funding will be used to launch Akua’s platform in Colombia next year, with plans for rapid expansion into Mexico, Peru, Chile and Brazil. Initially, the platform will support card payment processing, connecting directly to major networks like Visa and Mastercard, before integrating alternative payment methods.
In addition to the investment news, Akua revealed important operational plans and technological innovations. With 90% of its 20-person workforce comprised of engineers from large global technology companies, the company is well-positioned to tackle the region’s outdated payment systems that contribute to high fraud rates and inefficiency .
David Mort of Propel highlighted the importance of this company: “This is the right team to provide scalable, secure and efficient payment processing solutions for Latin America. Harmonizing the noise between merchants, card networks and acquirers is essential to unlocking business value and growing the new digital economy.
Additionally, Carlos Marín, CEO of Akua, said: “The payments landscape in Latin America is at a crucial juncture. Many businesses are still using legacy systems that are three decades old, leading to slow processing times and high fraud rates. We will be the first to offer a regionally integrated platform for processing any payment system, to bring efficiency, productivity and immediacy to consumers through the organizations that serve them.
Investors
The following investors have been identified in this article.