Pomelo has raised $140.0M in total across 8 funding rounds.
Pomelo's investors include Alex, Angelic Ventures, Cedar Capital Group, Kaszek Ventures, Manutara Ventures, monashees, Hans Tung, Notion Capital, Picus Capital, Carlos Julio Garcia, Diego Fleischmann, Jacqueline Reses.
Pomelo is a fintech infrastructure company founded in 2021 in Cordoba, Argentina, that provides a cloud-native platform for issuing, processing, and managing credit, debit, and prepaid card programs across Latin America.[1][3] It serves tech companies, unicorns, banks, and enterprises by enabling rapid launches of card services via a single API, solving the challenges of complex legacy infrastructure, regulatory hurdles, and slow time-to-market in the region.[1][3][4] With $100.15M raised and operations in six markets (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru), Pomelo processes over 55 million daily transactions at 99.995% uptime, powering custom solutions like BIN sponsorship and issuer processing for clients including Mercado Pago-linked projects.[1][3]
Pomelo was co-founded by Gaston Irigoyen and Hernan Furci, who drew from their experience building Naranja X, a digital financial service for Argentine retailer Naranja.[4] Frustrated by the 18-month, $50M, 300-person effort plagued by infrastructure bottlenecks—despite Furci's prior work at Mercado Pago—they left to create Pomelo in 2021, aiming to simplify card launches for any company.[1][4] Early traction came quickly: from zero code to enabling regional purchases, marking their first milestone, and they rapidly expanded to support virtual card integration in 7 days and physical in 2 months.[3][4]
Pomelo rides the wave of Latin America's fintech maturation, transitioning from consumer-facing apps like Nubank and Mercado Pago to infrastructure layers enabling embedded finance amid rising digital inclusion and complex regulations.[4][6] Timing aligns with post-pandemic digitization, blockchain/ML adoption, and cross-border expansion needs, where legacy systems hinder scalability—Pomelo cuts weeks-to-months timelines.[2][3][4] It influences the ecosystem by empowering non-banks to become fintechs, fostering innovation for unicorns and enterprises, and positioning LatAm as a hub for modern payments infrastructure.[1][4]
Pomelo is poised to dominate LatAm card infrastructure as embedded finance surges, potentially expanding beyond cards into full banking-as-a-service with recent $40M Series B fueling growth.[1][4] Trends like AI-driven fraud detection, crypto integration, and pan-regional regulations will shape its path, evolving it from a card enabler to a comprehensive financial OS.[2][4] Its influence could mirror Stripe's in the US, powering the next fintech wave while deepening ties with giants like Mastercard/Visa. This infrastructure pioneer, born from real-world pain, is reshaping how LatAm businesses monetize payments.
Pomelo has raised $140.0M across 8 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $40.0M Series B in January 2024.
