Jelou, an Ecuadorian startup founded by Luis Loaiza and Alberto Vera in 2017, closed a Series A round of US$10 million to expand Brain, its platform that allows companies to create AI agents capable of executing real commercial and financial operations within WhatsApp. The investment brings the company’s total capital raised to US$13 million, including a US$3 million seed round.
The round was led by Wellington Access Ventures, with participation from Krealo (the corporate venture capital division of Credicorp) and Collide Capital. Previously, Act One Ventures and Arca Continental Ventures led the seed. Jelou operates in more than 13 countries and serves more than 500 business clients, processing more than US$100 million in financial transactions.
The startup addresses a structural problem in Latin America: although messaging has become the main form of communication between people and companies, the actions that actually move money still occur elsewhere. Payments, identity verifications, credit applications and signatures are routinely sent to applications, portals or call centers, generating friction, abandonment and high operational costs.
How Brain works and what makes it different
Brain is a platform that allows companies and developers to create and operate AI agents that connect directly to their internal systems and perform transactional operations within the chat. Through Brain, companies can deploy agents that communicate with customers on WhatsApp, collect missing information, verify identity, activate payments, and optimize financial workflows using real-time system data.
The platform includes a web studio with more than 3,000 integrations to create and integrate agents, as well as a conversation management layer that allows teams to monitor high-volume interactions while securely executing workflows such as payments, credit processes, and document signing.
“When customers are most ready to act, things often fall apart,” said Luis Loaiza, CEO and founder of Jelou: “They are redirected out of the conversation, put on hold, or asked to repeat what they said in different systems. We created Brain so that companies can meet customers where they already are and complete the entire operation safely within the chat.
Why WhatsApp is the dominant channel in Latin America
Conversational channels such as WhatsApp became the default interface in Latin America for company-customer communication. However, most AI tools are still limited to answering questions rather than completing actual transactions. At the same time, companies face increasing pressure to reduce operational costs, improve conversion, and implement AI that integrates with existing systems without introducing security or compliance risks.
Jelou’s approach focuses on execution, allowing AI agents to advance work within the conversation rather than delegating it to fragmented tools. This capability is especially valuable in regions such as Latin America, where companies must operate with diverse regulations, payment channels and legacy systems.
The company’s journey began when Loaiza and the Jelou team observed that messaging had become the dominant interface for commerce in the region, while execution remained fragmented and insecure. With more than a decade of experience developing messaging and encrypted communication systems, the team set out to turn chat into a space where business is done.
Who are the customers and what use cases do they solve?
Jelou serves more than 500 enterprise clients in banking, retail, logistics and consumer goods sectors. The platform processes more than US$100 million in financial operations, validating that companies trust Brain for high-value and regulatory-sensitive transactions.
Use cases include financial institutions allowing customers to apply for credit, verify identity and sign documents entirely within WhatsApp. Retailers that process payments and complete purchases without redirecting users away from the conversation. Logistics companies that coordinate deliveries, confirm addresses and collect pending payments in a single message thread.
This ability to execute entire workflows within the conversational channel dramatically reduces abandonment rates. According to industry data, each redirection away from the conversation can result in conversion losses exceeding 30%, especially in processes that require multiple steps or verifications.
The vision of turning WhatsApp into a business operating system
“Jelou recognizes that the future of AI is focused on communication channels integrated into the daily workflow,” said Jackson Cummings, principal at Wellington Access Ventures: “They are developing a platform that integrates voice AI, chat AI, payments and identity into a single application layer. “This strategic approach positions Jelou as a pioneer in incorporating transactional AI into messaging in Latin America.”
Looking ahead, Jelou plans to expand Brain into a complete operating system for conversational businesses, allowing companies and developers to create, deploy and manage production-ready WhatsApp applications directly from a message. The company’s vision is to turn WhatsApp into the main operating platform for companies throughout the region.
This $10 million round will allow Jelou to scale that model across the Americas and take conversational AI beyond conversation to actual execution. The capital will finance commercial expansion, product development and strengthening integrations with banking and payment systems in different countries.
Why this model works better in Latin America
Jelou’s success reflects a broader trend toward conversational commerce and agent-driven trading. As AI adoption accelerates, companies are finding that automation only adds value when it is tightly integrated with existing infrastructure and designed for production from day one.
In regions like Latin America, where businesses must navigate diverse regulations, fragmented payment channels, and legacy systems, the ability to deploy secure, scalable AI within familiar channels is becoming a competitive necessity. WhatsApp dominates mobile communication in the region with penetration exceeding 90% in many markets, making it the obvious channel for building transactional infrastructure.
Jelou’s bet is that the next generation of enterprise applications will not be built on proprietary platforms, but within the communication channels where customers already spend their time. Brain provides the infrastructure to make that vision a reality in a way that is secure, scalable, and compliant with local regulations.
