José Carlos Aguilar

José Carlos Aguilar is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of Palenca, an open payroll API platform based in Mexico City, Mexico. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from ITAM and previously managed regional operations at Uber Eats, where he observed the financial challenges faced by gig economy workers. Before establishing his current enterprise, Aguilar founded an independent credit company to address regional lending gaps. He subsequently launched Palenca through the Y Combinator Winter 2021 batch, successfully securing a $2.6 million seed funding round to expand the platform's digital infrastructure. The business currently serves approximately 500 startups and enables over three million Latin American workers to securely share their employment and income data. Aguilar focuses his efforts on developing B2B fintech solutions that streamline identity verification and open finance capabilities across the broader Latin American market.