Akua, a Latin American-based payment processing platform, has successfully secured a seed investment of $4.3m.
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 prior roles at companies like Mastercard, dLocal, Jeeves, and Nubank.
Akua is setting a new standard in the region by developing the first “as-a-service” acquiring processor platform. This platform is cloud-native, highly secure, operates in real-time, and integrates AI to streamline operations for financial institutions and merchants across 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, directly connecting with major networks like Visa and Mastercard, before incorporating alternative payment methods.
In addition to the investment news, Akua has unveiled significant operational plans and technological innovations. With 90% of its 20-strong workforce comprising engineers from leading global tech firms, the company is well-poised to tackle the region’s outdated payment systems that contribute to high fraud rates and inefficiencies.
Propel’s David Mort highlighted the importance of this venture: “This is the right team to deliver 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.”
Furthermore, Carlos Marín, CEO of Akua, stated, “The payment landscape in Latin America is at a crucial turning point. Many businesses still use three-decade-old legacy systems that result in slow processing times and high fraud rates. We will be the first to offer a regionally integrated platform for the processing of any payment rail, to bring efficiency, productivity, and immediacy to consumers through the organizations that serve them.”
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