Por Stiven Cartagena
September 10, 2026
Hiring someone in another country has gone from being unusual to becoming part of the way many companies operate. The problem is that, behind a remote worker, there are still contracts, payments, tax compliance, regulations, and different financial systems that need to work together.
That market continues to expand. Deel's 2026 Global Hiring Report analyzed more than 1 million worker contracts from more than 37,000 companies across 150+ countries, highlighting Latin America's growing role as a source of global talent.
The shift has created an opportunity for companies building the financial and operational infrastructure behind distributed teams. Ontop was founded in Bogotá in 2020 with a relatively simple proposition: help companies hire, onboard and pay talent across borders without having to navigate each country's financial and regulatory complexity on their own.
The Colombian startup entered the market during the acceleration of remote work. It raised capital, expanded rapidly and built a presence across multiple countries. But its next stage looks different.
After years of prioritizing expansion, Ontop is now betting that artificial intelligence can help it grow.
Ontop has entered a new phase of growth, with profitability and efficiency becoming increasingly important as the company expands its global workforce platform.
The company's strategy is increasingly centered on growing without adding people and infrastructure at the same pace. Artificial intelligence is becoming a key part of that equation, helping Ontop automate processes and handle greater volumes across its global operation.
"Scale, but with margins." Torres said.
That approach builds on the company's earlier expansion. Ontop grew from 14 employees to 270 across 25 countries and raised a $20 million Series A led by SoftBank and Tiger Global, bringing its total funding to more than $31 million.
Torres had previously told Contxto that the company was entering a different phase, one focused on moving from being a startup to becoming a more established business.
That evolution is now closely tied to artificial intelligence.
Today, the company is focused on making that growth more sustainable while expanding what its platform can do for companies and global talent.
Ontop's current strategy revolves around OntopAI, which the company envisions as a system capable of automating increasingly complex parts of global employment, from hiring and compliance to payments and benefits.
The logic is straightforward: if AI can handle more of the work, Ontop can serve more companies and workers.
Torres has described the approach as growth with discipline rather than growth for its own sake.
Ontop's product has also expanded beyond payroll. The company now describes itself as a "Global Workforce Engine," allowing businesses to hire, onboard, pay and manage independent contractors across countries.
According to its current platform, Ontop serves more than 950 companies across more than 150 countries. It also offers Ontop Wallet, including a global USD account and Visa card for remote workers.
That financial layer is part of the company's attempt to solve more of the problems that come with working across borders.
"This benefit elevates the quality of life of talent, facilitates global purchases and offers competitive rates without resorting to cryptocurrencies or informal solutions," Torres told Contxto.
The idea is that technology should remove the friction surrounding global work without removing the human element from it.
Ontop started at the intersection of HR and fintech. Its initial challenge was helping companies move money to workers in different countries.
But as distributed work became more common, the problem became larger. Hiring internationally means dealing with contracts, documentation, compliance, payments and financial services at the same time.
Ontop has processed more than $1 billion in international payroll and payments, and its strategy now extends beyond simply moving money from one country to another.
The company wants to become infrastructure for global work.
That means bringing hiring, compliance, payments and financial services into a single system, while using AI to automate more of the processes behind them.
Its pitch to companies is therefore no longer just about paying remote workers faster.
"Companies adopt Ontop because they get speed, cost reduction, immediate payments and impeccable legal management. At the same time, remote talent enjoys benefits that improve their daily lives and allow them to work from anywhere without losing access to quality financial services," Torres told Contxto.
That positioning puts Ontop in a broader race to build the infrastructure for a workforce that increasingly operates across borders.
For the Colombian startup, AI is becoming the mechanism that could make that infrastructure more scalable without recreating the cost structure of its hypergrowth years.
Torres has described the company's next phase as "a new era of global work powered by artificial intelligence."
The ambition goes beyond payroll. Ontop wants companies to be able to hire, pay and offer benefits to talent anywhere in the world with the same simplicity with which they send an email.
For a startup that began by solving the mechanics of paying remote workers, the next challenge is turning that infrastructure into an operating system for a workforce that is increasingly global by default.
