“Can a LATAM-grown, hybrid API + web-scraping Open Finance stack become the default payment-initiation and bank-data layer for Chilean and Argentine merchants before global open-banking players arrive?”
Khipu started in 2011 as a bank-transfer-based payment initiation service in Chile, letting merchants accept payments directly from a payer's bank account instead of via card rails. Over a decade it broadened from pure payment initiation into a wider Open Finance / WaaS (web-scraping-as-a-service) layer — pulling account, identity, and credit data from banks and government services across Chile and Argentina via a hybrid of bank APIs and scraping where APIs don't exist. It now positions itself as the LATAM open-banking infrastructure provider for merchants, lenders, and KYC use cases.
Khipu processes payments through Khipu Instant Payments (self-operated) and Khipu Automatic Payments (self-operated).
Khipu connects to bank accounts through Khipu Open Finance (self-operated).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 2 layers in Khipu's stack: Payments / PSP (Khipu Instant Payments (self-operated) and Khipu Automatic Payments (self-operated)); Open banking (Khipu Open Finance (self-operated)).
Khipu was founded by Roberto Opazo and Emilio Davis and is founded in 2011, headquartered in Santiago, Chile.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Khipu and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.