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PayCaddy

“Can a Panama-based BaaS platform become the default card issuing and digital wallet infrastructure for Latin American companies that cannot afford to build fintech from scratch?”

Founded2018
HQPanama City, Panama
FoundersJuan Diego Galvez
Total raised$4.1M
Latest roundSeed, 2022
IndustryInfrastructure / BaaS
The story

Founded in 2018 by a payments veteran who saw firsthand that LatAm fintech infrastructure was too complex and expensive for small and mid-sized businesses. PayCaddy built an API-first card issuing and digital wallet platform positioned as 'BaaS for LatAm', enabling companies to launch Mastercard prepaid, debit, and credit programs under their own brand without building from scratch. YC W22 validation in 2022 accelerated growth; the company has since expanded its product from simple card issuing toward a broader Fintech-as-a-Service stack including a Credit Core (beta) lending module and an AI chatbot for cardholders.

Last 12 months
2024-05
Product timeline
2016
Founder Juan Diego Galvez begins working in cross-border payments across Latin America, identifying the infrastructure gap.· pivot
2018
PayCaddy Inc. founded in Panama City with a mission to democratize fintech infrastructure in LatAm.· banking
2020
Raises $1.4M Pre-Seed to build out card issuing and digital wallet API platform.· banking
2022
Accepted into Y Combinator W22 cohort; raises $2.4M Seed round from 7 investors.· banking
2024
Launches AI-powered chatbot for card management (block/unblock, PIN review, transaction inquiries) with OTP authentication.· banking
2024
Launches Credit Core (beta) in API documentation, indicating expansion from prepaid/debit into credit card issuing.· lending
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by PayCaddy
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
2 layers disclosed in PayCaddy’s embedded-finance stack
Card network
Mastercard
Lending
in the full report
Accounting gap: minor
1 more provider across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.