Meru, the financial super app founded in Bogotá in 2022 by Amilcar Erazo, Yoser Rodríguez and Carlos Neira, three Venezuelans who met again after emigrating and detected their first business opportunity in migrant remittances, announced the launch of new benefits for its users in Colombia.
With 1.5 million active users, more than 2 million downloads and presence in more than 150 countries, the company announces three central proposals for the Colombian market: variable yield of up to 7% EA on USDC through the DeFi Blend protocol, 10% cashback with MeruCard Visa in selected merchants, and direct access to the United States stock market from the same app.
What began as a WhatsApp remittance service on the Colombian-Venezuelan border evolved in four years into a platform that brings together an account in dollars, a global Visa card, the purchase and sale of crypto assets, transfers through Bre-B, payments via payment link, withdrawals in Moneygram and eSIM for travelers. Meru reports more than US$10 million in transactions and US$1.5 billion mobilized in total payment volume.
“In Colombia there is a huge appetite to protect and grow savings in dollars, but accessing tools like DeFi was still complex. With Meru we wanted to bring together in a single app everything a person needs to move their money,” said Carlos Neira, co-founder of Meru.
Dollarization in context: the peso at its highest level in seven years
The launch of Meru in Colombia comes at a particular moment in the exchange market: as of October 22, the Representative Market Rate (TRM) is below $3,200 pesos per dollar, levels not seen since 2019 and the product of one of the strongest appreciations of the Colombian peso in decades.
For Meru, that context is a window: the app allows you to buy, convert and hold USDC from your cell phone and generate a variable return of up to 7% EA through the DeFi Blend protocol, with self-custody. Performance is variable, may change over time and is not guaranteed; The current rate is consulted directly in the application.
The second benefit is the MeruCard Visa, with which users receive 10% cashback on Mercado Libre and Farmatodo, and 5% on platforms such as Netflix, Rappi and Uber. The benefit applies to verified users in Colombia with a cap of US$20 cashback per user.
“The 10% cashback with MeruCard in allied businesses is our way of ensuring that money control is also felt in the daily lives of Colombians,” added Carlos Neira.
From remittances at the border to a super app in 150 countries
Meru’s trajectory reflects an unusual expansion for a four-year-old Latin American startup: from serving the financial needs of Venezuelan migrants with a basic remittance service to building a platform that today competes in the segment of financial super apps with a global presence.
The proposal in Colombia targets freelancers, content creators, professionals, travelers and companies that need to manage money across borders without depending on multiple platforms and intermediaries.
The commitment to the Colombian market also has a timing dimension: Colombia is one of the countries in the region with the greatest adoption of cryptoassets and informal dollarization, and the launch of Bre-B, the immediate payments system of the Banco de la República, opens a new layer of integration between local finances and digital assets that Meru seeks to capitalize from its app.s
