Pismo Raises $108 Million Series B Led by SoftBank, Amazon and Accel to Enable Cloud-Native Financial Services Globally

SÃO PAULO, Oct. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pismo, the cloud-native core banking and payments platform, today announced the signing of a $108 million Series B fundraising round, led by SoftBank Latin America Fund, Amazon and Accel with participation from B3, Falabella Ventures and PruVen and existing investors and Headline and Redpoint eventures. The funding will fuel the company's global expansion and accelerate the development of market-leading technologies for banking, payments, and financial markets infrastructure.

The financial services industry is undergoing significant technological transformation, and consumers are increasingly demanding more innovative products and frictionless experiences. Pismo has developed a cloud-native core processing platform that gives banks, fintechs, and other financial institutions flexibility and agility. Its unique all-in-one platform allows Pismo customers to rapidly launch products for cards and payments, digital banking, digital wallets, and marketplaces. In addition, it allows financial institutions to take charge of their core data and use it intelligently.

Founded in 2016 by four experienced tech entrepreneurs in Brazil, Pismo has already attracted some of the biggest banks, fintechs, and retailers in Latin America as customers, including Banco Itaú, BTG, Cora, N26 and Falabella. The platform handles more than 4 billion API calls monthly, making it one of the biggest financial cloud-based platforms in the world. The Pismo platform hosts more than 25 million accounts which together transact more than $3 billion a month.

"With the widest product coverage in the market and cutting-edge technology adopted at scale, Pismo is now ready for a new phase of growth. On the back of this funding round, we will build further on the momentum and scale we already have in LATAM, and accelerate international expansion," says Ricardo Josua, co-founder and CEO at Pismo. "We have enabled our clients to launch and manage some of the most innovative products in the market, and we are just getting started. We are hiring over 200 engineers and world-class product, commercial, and management talent to lead banking and payment disruption all around the world."

"Ever since we embarked on our global expansion program in Europe, Asia, and North America earlier this year, we have seen significant interest in the platform and client momentum which is already being translated into commercial momentum," says Vishal Dalal, CEO (North America, Europe, and Asia) at Pismo. "This funding round will turbo-charge our aspirations globally, including the addition of three  offices: in Austin, Texas; Bristol, United Kingdom; and in Singapore. We're thrilled about building our footprint and customer base in these new regions."

"We are very excited to invest in Pismo. We believe they have a very talented team uniquely positioned to reinvent the technology behind banking, payments, fintech, and commercial transactions. The founders are outstanding and have great ambitions to make Pismo a truly global company," says Alex Szapiro, Head of Brazil and Operating Partner at SoftBank Group International.

"We believe Pismo is the foundational fintech platform for LATAM, and now with a new influx of funding, the rest of the world," said Ethan Choi, partner at Accel. "LATAM is in the early innings of its unprecedented fintech revolution and we're thrilled to support Pismo in enabling more innovative services and greater financial inclusion in the region, as well as taking its core banking and payments capabilities far and wide."

Several investors will also designate members to join the Pismo board of directors, in addition to  the Pismo founders who are already on the board? Ricardo Josua, Daniela Binatti, Juliana Motta, and Marcelo Parise.

About Pismo
Pismo is a technology company providing an all-in-one processing platform for banking, payments, and financial markets infrastructure. Large banks, marketplaces, and fintechs already use our cloud-native microservices platform. Pismo clients are launching next-generation solutions while migrating their legacy systems onto the most advanced platform in the market. Pismo cloud-based platform empowers teams to build fast and companies to launch rapidly, scaling as they grow to have a broader audience while keeping high security and availability standards.

About SoftBank
The SoftBank Group invests in breakthrough technology to improve the quality of life for people around the world. The SoftBank Group is comprised of SoftBank Group Corp. (TOKYO: 9984), an investment holding company that includes stakes in telecommunications, internet services, AI, smart robotics, IoT and clean energy technology providers; the SoftBank Vision Fund, which are investing more than US$135 billion to help extraordinary entrepreneurs transform industries and shape new ones; the US$5 billion SoftBank Latin America Fund, the largest venture fund in that region; the newly-launched US$3 billion SoftBank Latin America Fund II; and the SB Opportunity Fund, a US$100 million fund dedicated to investing in enterprises founded by entrepreneurs of color in the U.S. To learn more, please visit https://group.softbank/en.

About Accel
Accel is a global venture capital firm that is the first partner to exceptional teams everywhere, from inception through all phases of private company growth. Atlassian, Bumble, CrowdStrike, DJI, Facebook, Fiverr, Flipkart, Qualtrics, Slack, Spotify, Squarespace, Tenable, and UiPath are among the companies Accel has backed over the past 35+ years. We help ambitious entrepreneurs build iconic global businesses. For more, visit www.accel.com or www.twitter.com/accel.

SOURCE Pismo