tapi: The Infrastructure Behind the Digital Payment Shift

Q: How does tapi position itself within the integrated payments ecosystem in Latin America and Mexico? 
A: We are the essential, yet unseen, infrastructure partner for the leading banking and financial applications across Latin America. While end-users may not recognize the tapi name, we process payments for tens of millions of people in the five countries where we operate, with a particularly strong growth trajectory in Mexico. With the recent acquisition of Arcus’s assets from Mastercard, we have significantly expanded our capabilities to include cash-in and cash-out services at over 50,000 retail locations, allowing users to deposit cash at stores like OXXO or Walmart and integrate it into the digital financial ecosystem.

Q: What milestones have consolidated tapi’s leadership in recurring payments and top-ups? 
A: tapi was officially born in early 2022, but our journey began in 2020 when we started as a consumer-facing digital wallet that focused on bill payments. In late 2021, we pivoted to focus exclusively on building this B2B infrastructure. This new direction was validated when we raised a significant seed round of nearly US$10 million from prominent funds like Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global. This capital allowed us to expand rapidly, and within nine months of launching, we were operational in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Mexico. Our growth was further accelerated by a US$22 million Series A round led by Kaszek, which enabled us to deepen our commitment to the Mexican market and set the stage for our recent strategic moves.

Q: How does the acquisition of Arcus, a Mastercard subsidiary in Mexico, align with the company's objectives in the country? 
A: Acquiring Arcus’s assets marked a strategic inflection point by immediately strengthening our physical presence and local banking integrations. This move expanded our reach to over 50,000 cash-in points, cementing our status as Mexico’s most comprehensive payments network. It validates our infrastructure-first model and gives us the operational depth needed to bridge Mexico’s cash economy with the digital financial system.

Q: What is the main value that tapi brings to banks and fintechs compared to other payment networks with a regional presence? 
A: Unlike legacy networks designed for low-volume, branch-based transactions, we built tapi from the ground up to support high-frequency, digital-native environments. Our unified API enables clients to operate across multiple countries without managing separate integrations or navigating fragmented regulations. This dramatically reduces their operational burden and enhances scalability, especially for fast-growing fintechs. Furthermore, we offer a single, unified API that gives our clients access to our entire network across all countries, saving them from the immense complexity and resource drain of integrating with different providers and navigating unique regulations in each market.

Q: What role does tapi's serverless infrastructure support scalability, security, and operational efficiency? 
A: Our serverless infrastructure ensures 24/7 availability and high-volume processing without the constraints of legacy systems. We eliminated dependency on retail hours, allowing uninterrupted performance for clients like digital banks and neobanks. With a single integration, they gain regional coverage, and our team’s fintech background ensures our solutions are tailored to real operational pain points, not just theoretical models.

Q: What technical and compliance processes ensure that your single API maintains high levels of availability and coverage in the markets you operate? 
A: Over 70% of our team is dedicated to technology, ensuring our infrastructure remains robust and reliable. We are committed to extremely demanding service level agreements with our clients and have maintained over 99.99% uptime since our inception. We achieve this through a cloud-based architecture with multi-region redundancy to prevent service interruptions. A key part of our technical process is acting as a buffer between the high-demand environment of a modern fintech and the often legacy systems of billers, such as a local utility company.

Q: How does tapi manage the logic and customization of payment flows for sensitive services such as energy, insurance, or education? 
A: Our core value lies in the universality and reliability of our single API, rather than deep customization of individual flows. A client uses the exact same integration to process a federal tax payment via the SAT in Mexico as a company in Argentina might use to offer an online gaming gift card. Our guarantee is that all these payments, regardless of the vertical, are settled correctly and on time, adhering to the established service levels.

Q: What guarantees does tapi offer its clients regarding the continuous updating of agreements, local standards, and regulatory requirements? 
A: Our dedicated compliance team ensures our infrastructure stays current with evolving legal frameworks across all markets. Although tapi is not directly regulated, we meet the strict standards of our regulated clients, supported by certifications like ISO 27001. New billers and retail partners are instantly available to all clients via our API, eliminating the need for new integrations and keeping them agile in dynamic markets.

Q: What trends does tapi observe in the adoption of embedded finance solutions among traditional and new players in the Mexican market?
A: Despite technological advances, Mexico remains heavily cash-reliant, with over 90% of daily payments still made in physical currency and more than half the population unbanked. The key challenge is not digital account creation, but facilitating cash deposits into those accounts — something fintechs alone could not previously address.

We are witnessing a pivotal convergence of digital and physical finance. The rise of cash-in networks, led by fintechs, is enabling users to transition from cash to digital with ease. Our acquisition of Arcus was driven by this trend. By scaling the physical cash-in network, we are building the infrastructure necessary for true financial inclusion in Mexico. This is the turning point.

Q: How are AI and machine learning influencing the financial and fintech sector in Latin America? How is tapi using it to strengthen its offering? 
A: AI is impacting two distinct areas. First is internal productivity. With 70% of our team in technology roles, every one of them leverages AI tools to enhance efficiency and develop solutions that were previously too complex or costly to build. Second is the direct application of AI in our products. We are using it to help our clients better understand their customers, which for fintechs and banks translates into offering more and better credit to previously underserved populations. We are also developing tools to improve our clients' own operations.

In parallel, we are developing a new product that incorporates various AI components to enhance the collection system for all types of institutions, whether small, medium, or large.

Q: What regulatory or technological changes are most decisive for the immediate future of recurring payments and cash-in/out in Latin America? 
A: The regulatory shift allowing fintechs to establish cash-in capabilities — once exclusive to banks — is the most consequential development. This change enables fintechs to participate fully in the financial system and provides the foundation for inclusive growth. We work closely with regulators to ensure these networks meet strict consumer protection standards, especially since user trust depends on the certainty that deposited cash is reflected in their accounts promptly and securely.

Q: What are tapi's expansion or brand strengthening objectives in Mexico for late 2025 and early 2026? 
A: 2025 is proving to be transformational for tapi, largely due to the Arcus acquisition. Our primary goal is exponential growth in transaction volume. We expect to double our current volume by the end of 2025 and then multiply that three more times during 2026. This would place us at seven to eight times our current size by the end of next year. The immediate focus for the next six months will be on consolidation, integrating the Arcus teams and technologies to offer the best of both platforms to our combined client base. We will also focus on expanding our network of billers to provide even more payment options for users.
In terms of launches, we are very focused on developing a new product that will certainly be unveiled before the end of the year. This AI-based solution aims to enhance the tracking of individuals' payments and, on one hand, prevent them from incurring debts, while on the other hand, reduce companies' delinquency rates. We are very excited about this project because we are working with a highly diverse team that includes people from product, technology, marketing, data, and business, and we are confident that it will be very well received in the market.

Q: What business verticals or industries are you prioritizing to achieve these objectives? 
A: While we continue to serve traditional sectors like utilities and telecommunications, we are prioritizing four key verticals for future growth. The first is education, where tens of thousands of private institutions still rely on manual, in-person cash payments for monthly tuition. In the same way, this also applies to gyms, clubs, health centers, and any other educational or recreational institution, etc., that needs to improve and optimize its billing service.
The second is the insurance industry, which is a growing sector with a natural fit for recurring payment models. We are also focusing on the broader credit industry by providing collection solutions for non-bank financial institutions. Finally, we see a significant opportunity in the real estate market, which remains highly fragmented.