Visa led a US$12.5m strategic investment in Latin American fintech YellowPepper, with participation from existing investors. LIV Capital led a US$19m Series C investment in 2015 with participation from Mexico Ventures, Fondo de Fondos and the IFC.

(Press Release) YellowPepper today announced the close of its $12.5 million Series D financing, with participation from Visa and current investors. The funding will be used to accelerate the momentum of its digital finance platform, which already powers 480M digital transactions annually. With more than 60 clients in six countries, YellowPepper has become an indispensable financial services partner to Latin American institutions.

We have been the go-to service for all major financial institutions and retailers for years and now are expanding our secure and efficient technology to build out a robust ecosystem within Latin America to make interacting with, managing and accepting cashless payments as easy as possible,” said Serge Elkiner, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at YellowPepper.

YellowPepper’s technology is a catalyst for large-scale distribution of mobile solutions in Latin America, which has the fastest rate of smartphone adoption in the world, with total adoption expected to reach 60 percent of mobile phone users by 2020, up from 38 percent in 2016. (source: Pew Research Center, February 2016) Smartphone Ownership and Internet Usage Continues to Climb in Emerging Economics

“YellowPepper has revolutionized the digital payment process for companies and consumers in Latin America,” said Eduardo Coello, regional president for Visa Latin America and the Caribbean. “Through our investment in YellowPepper, we want to bring the best of Visa’s technology and capabilities to a broader set of partners and clients across the region. YellowPepper’s extensive experience in the region and the strength of their existing client base makes them an ideal partner to build the future of payments.”

Institutional and retail customers leverage YellowPepper’s technology to transform their legacy system into next generation mobile first platforms expanding and optimizing their product portfolio.

FT Partners served as the exclusive strategic and financial advisor to YellowPepper.

About YellowPepper

Founded in 2004, YellowPepper is the fintech pioneer in Latin America with proprietary technology and partnerships with leading financial institutions and industry startups. YellowPepper provides a digital finance platform that gives consumers, merchants, issuers and processors the means to revolutionize the purchasing experience. Operating in six Latin American countries the Miami-based company currently enables over 6.6 million monthly active users that execute 480 million transactions yearly, while connecting them with more than 400,000 merchants. For more information, please visit www.yellowpepper.com.

About Visa Inc.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world’s leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network – enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit About Visa, visacorporate.tumblr.com, @VisaNews, @VisaNewsLatam.

Acerca de YellowPepper

Fundada en 2004, YellowPepper es la empresa pionera en los pagos móviles en América Latina, cuenta con una tecnología propietaria y está asociada con las instituciones y fintechs líderes. YellowPepper proporciona una plataforma de pago que proporciona a los consumidores, comercios, emisores y procesadores los medios para revolucionar la experiencia de pago. Con operaciones en seis países latinoamericanos, la empresa con sede en Miami habilita actualmente a más de 6.6 millones de usuarios mensuales activos que realizan 480 millones de transacciones al año, al mismo tiempo que los conecta con más de 400,000 comercios. Para obtener información más detallada, visite www.yellowpepper.com.

About FT Partners

FT Partners is the only investment banking firm focused exclusively on providing strategic and financial advisory services to clients and CEOs in the dynamic global financial services and technology sector. For more, visit www.ftpartners.com