Pismo Raises $108M Led by SoftBank, Amazon & Accel

Fintech Infrastructure Provider Pismo Secures $108 Million in Series B Funding

The fintech sector has experienced substantial growth in recent years. Consequently, investment in companies supplying the essential infrastructure for both established financial institutions and emerging fintechs has also significantly increased.

Pismo's Funding and Investors

São Paulo-headquartered Pismo is a key player in this infrastructure space. The company recently announced a successful $108 million Series B funding round. This round was co-led by prominent investors including SoftBank, Amazon, and Accel, a Silicon Valley venture firm.

Additional participation came from Falabella Ventures, PruVen, and existing investors Redpoint eventures and Headline. This latest funding brings Pismo’s total raised capital to $118 million.

Amazon's Investment in Latin America

Amazon’s investment in a Latin American infrastructure provider for financial services is particularly noteworthy. This signals the company’s growing commitment to the Latin American market. Amazon is actively considering the payment methods and underlying infrastructure required to serve its regional customer base.

Company Growth and Customer Base

Established in 2016, Pismo has attracted a notable clientele. Key customers include Banco Itaú, BTG, Cora, N26, and Falabella.

The platform currently processes over 4 billion API calls each month and supports more than 30 million accounts. This translates to a monthly transaction volume exceeding $3.5 billion. According to CEO and co-founder Ricardo Josua, the transaction volume was less than $1 billion monthly at the start of the year. Account numbers have also risen rapidly, from under 10 million at the end of 2020 to the current level, with approximately 2.5 million accounts added monthly.

Revenue Model

Pismo operates as a SaaS business, primarily generating revenue through transaction fees. Pricing is tiered based on active account volume, meaning costs decrease as customer bases grow.

Platform Capabilities

Pismo’s cloud-native core processing platform aims to provide financial institutions – including banks and fintechs – with increased flexibility and agility. The platform enables the rapid launch of products for cards, payments, digital banking, digital wallets, and marketplaces.

Furthermore, Pismo asserts its platform empowers financial institutions to effectively manage and leverage their core data. It is positioned as the Latin American equivalent of Galileo.

“We are dedicated to empowering these institutions to overcome limitations and prepare for the next wave of payment and banking innovations,” stated Josua.

Expansion Plans

While achieving success in Latin America, Pismo intends to utilize the new funding to expand its reach beyond the region. The company will also accelerate the development of technologies for banking, payments, and financial markets infrastructure.

Pismo already serves customers in Asia and is planning to establish offices in Austin, Texas, and Bristol, United Kingdom.

“Our major competitors operate on a global scale,” Josua explained.

Investment in Sales and Talent

The company also plans to bolster its sales and go-to-market strategies. Previously, Pismo achieved growth with minimal investment in sales and marketing.

Earlier this year, Pismo appointed Vishal Dalal, a former McKinsey partner, as its CEO of global operations. Josua himself has a strong background in the financial technology space, having previously founded Conductor (now Dock), a pioneering payments & banking-as-a-service platform in Latin America. Former Conductor executives also joined him in establishing Pismo.

Instant Payments and Future Growth

“The launch of an instant payment solution by the central bank of Brazil a year ago created a significant demand,” Josua shared with TechCrunch. “Because we had already developed the necessary technology, we were fully prepared and capable of real-time implementation, allowing institutions to integrate without any coding. We believe this simple product will become widespread, even in the U.S.”

Pismo also intends to significantly expand its workforce, with plans to hire over 200 engineers. The startup has grown from a team of 40 in March 2020 to over 250 employees, with 85% of the team comprised of technical talent.

Defining Pismo's Identity

Josua prefers the term “techfin” to describe Pismo, rather than “fintech” or “BaaS.”

“We are fundamentally a technology company,” he clarified. “We even provide the infrastructure for companies offering BaaS solutions. Five of our clients are currently providing BaaS solutions to their own customers.”

Investor Confidence

Pismo’s investors express strong confidence in the company’s potential, both within Latin America and globally.

Alex Szapiro, head of Brazil and operating partner at SoftBank, believes Pismo has developed a “world-class technology from the ground up, capable of addressing many of the challenges in finance in a highly scalable manner.”

“Leading banks and financial institutions in Latin America are already utilizing Pismo for both their digital transformation initiatives and their core products, replacing outdated legacy systems,” Szapiro stated. “Simultaneously, sophisticated fintechs are leveraging their technology to enhance their offerings.”

Szapiro highlights Pismo’s unique position as a “neocore” technology platform already handling large-scale operations for financial institutions.

“The founders are exceptional and possess ambitious goals to establish Pismo as a truly global company,” he added.

Seeking the "Galileo for LatAm"

Ethan Choi, a partner at Accel, explained that his firm was seeking a “Galileo for LatAm” when they discovered Pismo. (Accel previously invested in Galileo before its acquisition by SoFi in October 2019.)

Accel specifically sought a company providing core infrastructure for fintechs, with a deep understanding of the local banking ecosystem.

Pismo met these criteria, boasting a founding team with experience building a previous generation of similar platforms.

“We knew we needed a next-gen, API-first, cloud-based platform,” Choi said. “And that’s exactly what Pismo delivers. It’s the most robust platform of its kind in the region, and comparable to any platform globally. It can support all the functionalities a fintech requires.”

Note: The article was amended post-publication to clarify lead investors