Visa Inc. (V.N) acquired Brazilian fintech platform Pismo for $1 billion in cash on Wednesday, signaling increased confidence in Latin America amid a funding slowdown.
Pismo is Latin America’s largest fintech exit since Nubank went public in late 2021 and the year’s largest announced startup departure.
Visa, the world’s largest payments processor, made its first major acquisition since 2021 when it bought the European open banking platform Tink for $2.2 billion and British cross-border payments startup Currencycloud.
Pismo’s cloud-based infrastructure for financial institutions in Sao Paulo handles over 70 million accounts and transacts over $200 billion a year, enabling clients to issue Visa and Mastercard (MA.N) cards.
Mastercard was also interested in buying the financial infrastructure firm earlier this year. It did not respond to a comment request.
The acquisition follows an 82% year-on-year reduction in venture funding in Latin America in May, according to data provider Sling Hub, as high-interest rates and recession fears jolted global markets and tech values.
Visa said Pismo would keep its management team after the purchase closes by year’s end.
Entrepreneurs Ricardo Josua, Daniela Binatti, Juliana Binatti, and Marcelo Parise formed the seven-year-old enterprise. European, North American, Southeast Asian, Indian, and Latin American operations.
Pismo has secured approximately $110 million from SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T), Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), Accel, and Headline, which first invested in the seed round and owned 30% of the company.
