By Riley Kaminer
Moving money across borders may just be one of the biggest headaches stemming from living internationally. Miami-based Félix Pago is on a mission to make that headache go away. It has developed a remittance platform – currently connecting US consumers with friends and family across Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras – that enables bank transfers via WhatsApp. And unlike traditional providers, Félix Pago’s service won’t break the bank: Transfers start at $2.99 each.
To further develop its platform and expand to new countries, Félix Pago has raised a $15.5 million Series A led by Castle Island Ventures. Additional participants include Switch Ventures, HTwenty, Contour and MELI Capital (the corporate VC of Mercado Libre).
A partnership with Mercado Libre that promoted Félix Pago’s service accounted for 25% of the startup’s new users. A partnership with Nubank led to similar results. Now, the company reports that its growth comes from referrals and influencer marketing.
In an interview with Refresh Miami, CEO Manuel Godoy laid out Félix Pago’s three-pronged plan for deploying this new capital. “First, we plan to allocate resources to strengthen our infrastructure all around,” he said. This includes everything required for a fintech to thrive, including compliance and anti-fraud tech.
Second is product development. “Naturally, as an AI-based company, we need to creatively leverage AI, which requires engineering expertise – all with a focus on delivering a superior chatbot experience for our users.”
Third: growth, growth, growth. This includes user acquisition across markets in which Félix Pago is currently active as well as new markets. With these funds in tow, the startup plans to expand across Latin America, starting with El Salvador and Nicaragua before moving onto the Dominican Republic and Colombia.
Félix Pago plans to double its staff of 20 by the end of 2024. Much of this growth is also focused on Miami. Currently, only the company’s founders are in Miami, but Godoy said that we can expect to see a staff of around 10 in Miami this year – a mix of new hires and relocations of current hires.
Miami has played a protagonistic role in Félix Pago’s growth story, enabling the team to easily access the Latin American markets in which they are active while also benefiting from being a U.S.-based company.
“The Miami ecosystem is growing a lot, but we need to find ways to encourage more talent, particularly engineers and builders, to come,” asserted Godoy. “We’re bringing people to Miami, which will hopefully play even a small part in strengthening the local ecosystem.”
Much of the beauty of Félix Pago stems from its simplicity. For instance, the Whatsapp integration means that users can avoid downloading yet another app. But underneath the hood, there’s a lot of technical wizardry going on to make that seamless UX happen. That includes leveraging the USDC stablecoin, which is cheaper and faster than legacy alternatives. Félix Pago passes much of this money and time savings onto their customers.
Remittances are very much just the beginning for Félix Pago – far from the endgame. “We are focused on understanding and meeting the needs of underserved users,” said Godoy, lamenting the fact that many traditional products are built for the average American – not for the typical remittance customer.
For example, Godoy noted that Félix Pago’s users have a strong need for access to credit. “We plan to address this with a product we call the Credit Builder. This will allow users to build their credit scores as they send remittances. Ultimately, this will enable them to send higher amounts of money to their families in Latin America.”
Pictured at top of post: Félix Pago co-founders Bernardo Garcia (COO), at left, and CEO Manuel Godoy.
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