How Akua Revolutionizes the Payment-Acquiring Processing Landscape in Latin America

We are excited to announce our investment in Akua, an innovative fintech startup that addresses the inefficiencies of Latin America's outdated payment-acquiring processing system.

Founded by a team of seasoned experts with extensive experience in payments and fintech, Akua is set to disrupt a market long dominated by legacy systems that fail to meet the needs of modern payment technologies.

Latin America’s payment-acquiring space has historically lagged in scalability and technological innovation, controlled by a handful of incumbents. Outdated, monolithic systems create inflexibility, making it challenging to adopt modern payment solutions like digital wallets, instant payments, and tokenized transactions. As a result, merchants and payment facilitators face high costs, regulatory compliance risks, and elevated fraud risks in this fragmented ecosystem.

Akua seeks to unify this fragmented landscape with a scalable, cloud-native platform that seamlessly integrates with all payment rails—from traditional card networks to cutting-edge instant payment schemes. The platform provides merchants with faster, more reliable services, leveraging network tokenization to reduce fraud risk, while its cloud infrastructure enables scalable growth without the hefty maintenance costs associated with legacy systems.

From our very first conversation with the founders, we knew we wanted to partner with this exceptional team. Carlos Mario Marín Arroyave, CEO and Co-founder; Juan Jose Behrend, CTO and Co-founder; and Rodrigo Rodrigues, COO and Co-founder, collectively bring over 45 years of experience in the Latin American fintech and payments industry. Their understanding, expertise, and clear passion for the space truly impressed us.

• Carlos brings over 15 years of experience in leading fintech players, previously holding leadership roles at Pomelo, PayU, and Mastercard. His track record of signing over $200M in total contract value and his extensive network and skills position him to drive Akua's mission to modernize and streamline the region's payment infrastructure.
• Juanjo boasts a track record of building scalable tech solutions for fintech companies such as dLocal and Pomelo. His expertise in developing payment infrastructure and cloud platforms for clients like Google, Netflix, and Amazon will play a crucial role in scaling Akua’s cloud-native technology.
• Rodrigo, with 13+ years of fintech experience at Jeeves, Movii, and Mastercard, brings invaluable knowledge in operations and partner relations within the payment ecosystem. His ability to lead Akua's commercial and operational strategies will be key to the company’s growth.

This team is highly capable for the product they are developing, and we believe they are uniquely positioned to transform the payments landscape in Latin America.