Akua, the paytech Latin American company that seeks to transform the global payment processing infrastructure, announced the successful closing of its second seed round for US$ 8.5 million. This new injection of capital brings the total amount raised by the company to US$13 million in just one year of operation, a milestone that underlines the technological potential of the region.
The round was co-led by global funds Flourish Ventures and Cathay Latam. Added to this investment was the strategic participation of important regional funds such as Atlántico, Honey Island, and 4UM Inversiones de Brasil, in addition to Krealo (the arm of corporate venture of Credicorp in Peru) and Simma Capital of Colombia.
The AaaS Model: AI-powered Acquisition as a Service
Akua is positioned as the “new Payment Operating System” in Latin America, offering an innovative Acquisition as a Service (AaaS) model. This service provides an infrastructure cloud-native so that banks, fintechs and aggregators can launch their own payment processing system in record time.
Its platform is distinguished by being designed from the ground up in the cloud, powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) to optimize critical tasks such as fraud detection and chargeback automation. The robustness of its proposal has allowed it to obtain approved licenses in record time by Visa and Mastercard, with an installed capacity to process more than 50 million daily transactions.
Multi-national Leadership and Expansion Plans
The paytech It has highly experienced leadership in the region’s technology industry: the Uruguayan Juan José Behrend (CTO), the Colombian Carlos Mario Marín (CEO), and the Brazilian Rodrigo Rodrigues (COO).
Juan José Behrend highlighted the value of the regional platform, noting that Akua offers a solution designed from the ground up in the cloud, allowing companies to scale frictionless digital payments in Latin America.
With operations already consolidated in Colombia and Uruguay, the new capital will allow Akua to accelerate its expansion and conquer new markets. The immediate plan includes taking the first steps in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Peru and Central America. The company is emerging as a key player in the modernization of digital payments, focused on driving efficiency in a transfer market cross-border that moves billions of dollars in the region.
