The Argentine fintech Mendel, founded by Alan Karpovsky and Alejandro Zecler, has raised around US$50 million in different rounds. The company transformed its initial proposal of corporate cards into a technological platform to manage and automate business expenses.
Currently, it operates in Mexico, Argentina and Chile. In addition, it has clients such as Mercado Libre, FEMSA, McDonald’s and Vista Energy.
Its evolution responds to a specific opportunity in the corporate market. While a good part of Latin American fintech companies focused on consumers, companies still maintain manual processes to manage advances, travel expenses, invoices and trips.
From corporate cards to a B2B platform
Mendel was born in 2021 with the intention of competing in the B2B payments market. Its initial goal was to build a more efficient alternative to traditional corporate cards. However, the company quickly modified its strategy.
“When we were born, we wanted to be a B2B payment system for companies and compete with American Express with a more efficient product. But we realized that that was not our battle,” explained Juan Francisco Montes de Oca, Director of Sales and Marketing at Mendel.
From there, the company focused on developing technology to manage business expenses. The platform integrates expense, payment and travel management tools. Thus, it gives financial teams greater visibility over their operations.
The goal is to replace processes that still rely on Excel, email, and cash. With this, companies can know in real time who spent, how much, where and if the operation complied with their policies.
Currently, Mendel has around 1,500 client companies in Latin America. About 1,100 are in Mexico, about 350 in Argentina and around 50 in Chile. In total, approximately 250,000 employees use its solutions.
The company began its journey with Y Combinator. It then closed a seed round of close to US$3 million and a Series A of US$15 million. In 2025, it completed a US$35 million Series B led by Base10 Partners, with participation from PayPal Ventures and other investors.
Vaca Muerta as a new use case
The growth of industries such as energy, mining, construction and logistics is driving corporate expense management toward more complex operations. In that scenario, Vaca Muerta became one of the main use cases for Mendel.
The development of the Argentine energy industry involves mobilizing thousands of workers daily. It also requires managing expenses for accommodation, transportation, food, work clothes and equipment.
Vista Energy already uses the platform. In addition, the growth of Vaca Muerta is generating opportunities with foreign companies. Among them is a Mexican construction company that won a tender for the deposit and needs to transfer nearly 3,000 employees to Argentina.
Technology instead of competing with banks
In Argentina it works with Banco CMF and in Chile with Banco BICE. Additionally, its software can integrate with cards issued by different institutions.
This model allows Mendel to position itself as a B2B technology company. Its proposal goes beyond traditional payments or credit. The revenue model combines SaaS subscriptions, which account for more than half of its revenue, card interchange fees, and a fee associated with its bill payment product.
The company maintains that it achieved profitability after four and a half years of operation. In addition, it plans to close 2026 with about 500 large clients in Argentina. At the same time, he assures that he is detecting greater interest from foreign companies and investors in the Argentine market.
