Fintech startup Pomelo raises $35M Series A led by Tiger Global

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Fintech company Pomelo had just raised a $9 million seed funding round a few months ago, but has already announced another investment round: a $ 35 million Series A led by Tiger Global Management.

In addition to Tiger Global, a host of hedge fund firms also participated in the round, including Insight Partners, Index Ventures, Monashees, QED Traders, BoxGroup, Greyhound, Gilgamesh Ventures, and Clocktower.

Several angel investors have also invested in the company, including Affirm founder Max Levchin, Martin Varsavski, Jackie Reses, Angela Bizarre of a16z, Max Tayenthal of European neobank N26, and Unit co-founder and CEO Itai Damti.

Pomelo is a startup based in Argentina that provides state-of-the-art technology that incorporates all local regulations to offer financial services in Latin America.

The company proposes the creation of a new generation of financial services infrastructure that allows companies to build a financial technology business and launch cards “much faster” throughout Latin America.

According to Gastón Irigoyen, CEO and co-founder of Pomelo, to TechCrunch, the region is home to a financial services infrastructure that is “completely outdated” and “highly fragmented.”

An example: it takes approximately 12 to 18 months to launch a card and companies have to repeat the same process in all markets.

Pomelo allows fintech companies and integrated financial agents to create virtual accounts with onboarding processes, as well as the issuance of credit and prepaid cards throughout Latin America.

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital payments and, while 80% of all transactions are still done in cash, there are more than 1 billion cards in the region.

The cards have an estimated volume of payments of US $ 900 billion per year and yet 95% of these transactions are being processed by local holders.

Pomelo has 100 employees who have previously worked in companies such as Mercado Pago, Mastercard, Nubank, Amazon Payments, Lime, D-Local and N26.

With this new investment, this fintech will seek to hire more than 150 employees by the end of 2022 and accelerate the development and commercial launch of more products

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