“Can a Brazilian card acquirer become the dominant operating-system bank for the country's SMBs?”
Stone began in 2012 as a card-acquirer challenger to Cielo and Rede in Brazil, winning SMBs with better service and faster settlement. After its 2018 NASDAQ IPO it expanded vertically into banking (Conta PJ), credit (Stone Sociedade de Crédito S.A.), and software (Linx acquisition 2020). The current positioning — 'O Banco de Quem Empreende' — frames Stone as a full SMB neobank with acquiring, account, card, BNDES-linked credit, and embedded-finance APIs (Banking Gateway, OpenBank, Pagar.me) for partners.
Stone discloses Stone Instituição de Pagamento S.A. (in-house) as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Stone does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Stone Instituição de Pagamento S.A. (in-house).
Stone processes payments through Stone Acquiring (self-operated) and Pagar.me (self-operated). Disclosed money-movement rails: Pix.
Stone's cards are issued through Stone (in-house).
Stone's lending and capital products are provided by Stone Sociedade de Crédito S.A. (in-house).
Stone integrates with ERP integrations via Stone SDK / Banking Gateway and Partner Hub API.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 6 layers in Stone's stack: Payments / PSP (Stone Acquiring (self-operated) and Pagar.me (self-operated)); Money movement (Pix); Banking / BaaS (Stone Instituição de Pagamento S.A. (in-house)); Card issuing (Stone (in-house)); Lending (Stone Sociedade de Crédito S.A. (in-house), Capital de Giro, Limite da Conta, Cartão de Crédito Stone and 3 others); Accounting (ERP integrations via Stone SDK / Banking Gateway and Partner Hub API).
Stone is founded in 2012 and headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
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