Kaszek backs Tapi's $27M bet to wire Mexico's cash economy into the digital age

The most interesting money in Latin America right now is not flowing into another super-app or crypto exchange. It is flowing into the plumbing — the unglamorous pipes that move cash between a school in Monterrey and a parent paying tuition, between an insurer in Buenos Aires and a policyholder who has never used a card. That is the world Tapi operates in, and it just got a serious vote of confidence. The Argentine payments infrastructure startup has closed a US$27 million Series B round led by Kaszek, the region's most storied venture fund, with Endeavor Catalyst and Latitud joining in. It is a bet that the future of South American wealth is not in creating new currencies, but in finally digitizing the ones that already exist.

Tapi was founded in 2022, a boom year for Latin American entrepreneurship, and has now raised US$60 million in total. The company builds payment networks for financial institutions, collection agencies and retail chains across Mexico and Argentina. Its founder and CEO, Tomás Mindlin, told Contxto that more than 90% of the new capital will go toward expanding in Mexico — deepening the team and accelerating product development. The flagship product, Tapipay, is the focus for 2026: an automated collections tool aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises, insurance companies, schools and regional financial institutions. The numbers behind Tapi are already substantial: more than 250 million transactions per year, processing US$6 billion in volume, connecting 20,000 service companies and 70,000 physical points.

To understand why this matters, you have to understand the context of the region's informal economy. In Mexico and Argentina, enormous swaths of commerce still run on cash, on paper receipts, on handwritten ledgers. SMEs — the backbone of both economies — often operate outside the formal digital system entirely. They collect payments manually, reconcile accounts by hand, and struggle to access credit because their financial history is invisible. Tapi's pitch is straightforward: give these businesses a digital rail for collections, and you do not just upgrade their operations; you pull them into the formal economy for the first time. That is a powerful narrative for investors, because it ties financial returns to a broader story of inclusion and modernization.

Mindlin framed the round as validation, telling Contxto it reflects the long-term vision investors have for Tapi, projected over 10 or 20 years. That time horizon is telling. Kaszek is not a fund that chases quick exits; it has backed some of the region's defining companies over the past decade. The fact that it chose to lead this round, alongside the acquisition of Arcus in July 2025 — which expanded Tapi's infrastructure to connect with those 20,000 service companies and 70,000 physical points in Mexico — signals a consolidation play. Tapi is not just building a product; it is assembling the rails that competitors will have to use. In less than 18 months, the company says it reached breakeven and profitability in 2025 and grew revenue tenfold. That is rare discipline in a startup ecosystem often characterized by burn-first, ask-questions-later strategies.

What does this signal about capital and wealth in South America? For one, investors are increasingly looking past consumer-facing fintech — the digital wallets and neobanks that dominated headlines for years — and toward the infrastructure layer underneath. The region's wealth is still heavily concentrated in cash and informal channels, and whoever digitizes those channels will control a massive flow of value. Tapi's goal to triple its current volume of 25 million monthly payments, and to capture demand from sectors like insurance, education, healthcare and retail that still operate manually, speaks to that opportunity. It also reflects a geographic shift: Mexico is now the center of gravity for Latin American fintech, drawing capital that once flowed primarily to Brazil or Argentina. For an Argentine startup, expanding in Mexico is both a growth strategy and a hedge against domestic volatility.

The founders — including Kevin Litvin and Nicolás Andriano — say they are excited about what this allows them to build, and about the opportunity to transform the payment ecosystem in both Mexico and Argentina. With a team of 90 people, 70% of them technical, Tapi plans to keep hiring engineers and product talent. The road ahead is not without challenges: Mexico's payments market is crowded, and incumbents have deep pockets. But Tapi's profitability, its existing scale, and the backing of Kaszek give it a rare combination of stability and ambition. For those who follow wealth in South America, the message is clear: the next fortunes will not be made by inventing new ways to spend money, but by making the money that already exists move faster, safer and more transparently. Tapi is betting on exactly that — and Kaszek is betting on Tapi.