São Paulo, Brazil and Web Summit Rio, April 16, 2024 – CloudWalk, Inc., a Brazilian unicorn that developed the InfinitePay financial services platform, has announced its official arrival in the United States, the first destination outside of Latin America for its global expansion. The announcement was made on-stage during a keynote by CloudWalk CEO/founder Luis Silva during Web Summit Rio, one of the world’s leading global innovation event series.
CloudWalk will launch its Jim.com for the U.S. market in the coming weeks with an initial focus on building its U.S. user base in the Austin, Texas, New York, and the San Francisco Bay Area regions. That effort will focus on individual entrepreneurs or businesses with one to three employees.
The app brings together three major trends in the payment market. The first is AI via a smart assistant that helps users make daily financial decisions. The second is Tap to Pay, a technology that uses short-range wireless NFC (near-field communication) to turn smartphones into payment terminals that have been growing exponentially in various markets. Finally, the rise of instant payments, which in Brazil is led by Pix, allows payments to instantly reach the seller's account.
Interested parties may register on the website as of today to join the list of early customers for the app in the U.S.
Instant payment technology represents a significant revolution in cash flow management for entrepreneurs. With greater control over their cash, entrepreneurs can access more resources to purchase inputs and negotiate with suppliers.
Building on Brazilian fintech know-how for rapid U.S. growth
"In the past, Brazilian entrepreneurs would receive payments via a card, but the money could take days or even months to be deposited into their bank accounts, especially for installment payments such as Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) short-term loans. This scenario has changed with the popularization of Pix in Brazil, and we've seen similar movements in major economies like China and India," said Silva.
In the U.S., according to CloudWalk's CEO, this reality is different. The instant payment movement is relatively recent; driven by changes in the American macroeconomic landscape, such as rising interest rates and inflation, which have encouraged the adoption of financial technologies. FedNow, a Federal Reserve initiative similar to Pix, was launched in the U.S. last year, but it has yet to take off.
"In Brazil, everyone is using Pix, QR codes, and receiving money within seconds. In the U.S., the situation is different. They are just beginning to experience this," said Silva. "Jim.com brings together the most innovative technologies while leveraging our experience as a fintech company dealing with the many challenges of being an entrepreneur in LatAm. This is our advantage in a market that is extremely competitive and about ten times larger than Brazil in payments transaction volume."
CloudWalk’s Profitability and Rapid Customer Growth
In addition to CloudWalk’s U.S. expansion starting in May, Silva talked about the company's significant momentum The fintech has achieved a net profit of $22.3 million and gross revenue of $320.5 million, a 40 percent growth gain compared to 2022. During this time, the Brazilian fintech unicorn saw its customer base grow by more than 200 percent and it now serves more than 1.2 million customers.
"2023 was an extraordinary year for CloudWalk's journey. Our recent trajectory has been marked by a unique combination of hypergrowth, profitability, innovation, and a solid long-term strategy," said Silva. "We are confident that our arrival in the United States can help us attain much greater heights."
About Cloudwalk
CloudWalk is a global financial services platform with a primary mission to revolutionize the way individuals and small to medium-sized businesses handle money. As the owner of the InfinitePay and Jim.com brands, the fintech company has been operating since 2019 with blockchain-based products, including digital banking, loans, cashback cards, online sales, digital wallets, and payment terminals. It has more than 1.2 million customers across 5,568 Brazilian municipalities. Since its founding, CloudWalk has raised $365 million and was last valued at $2.15 billion in November 2021 following a $150 million Series C round led by Coatue.
For more information, visit: https://cloudwalk.io/
