We’re building Kontigo, a USDC Smart Neobank for Latinos in the U.S. and Latin America.

We launched our Peer-to-Peer onramp 20 days ago and we’ve already had $540k in deposits, 10k active users and a +300k waitlist. 

The founding team has built and scaled fintechs in Latam, and it’s ex-Venmo, Nubank, Rappi, MercadoLibre, Ualá, Platzi, and Yuno. 

We’re already backed by DST Global, Soma Capital, Pioneer Fund, Transpose + 10 YC alums.

Sending money to Latin America is just as painful as holding it due to the region's fragmentation into 33 countries with 39 different currencies. 

On one hand, cross-border payments to Latam are absurdly expensive (up to 20% per transaction). Conversely, over the past decade, currency depreciation across the region has become unsustainable. (some countries surpassing the trillion percent ). 

Kontigo solves this with a USDC global wallet & a BTC savings account. 

- Like Venmo, but on-USDC.
- Like Zelle, but for cross-border payments. No limits.
- Like Nubank & Revolut, but without inflationary currencies. Bitcoin-backed.

User wallets are connected to an AI-private banker on WhatsApp to execute international USDC transactions. 
USDC-Smart Neobank for Latinos. 
Title: Kontigo: USDC-Smart Neobank for Latinos.  | Y Combinator

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### USDC-Smart Neobank for Latinos.

We’re building Kontigo, a USDC Smart Neobank for Latinos in the U.S. and Latin America. We launched our Peer-to-Peer onramp 20 days ago and we’ve already had $540k in deposits, 10k active users and a +300k waitlist. The founding team has built and scaled fintechs in Latam, and it’s ex-Venmo, Nubank, Rappi, MercadoLibre, Ualá, Platzi, and Yuno. We’re already backed by DST Global, Soma Capital, Pioneer Fund, Transpose + 10 YC alums. Sending money to Latin America is just as painful as holding it due to the region's fragmentation into 33 countries with 39 different currencies. On one hand, cross-border payments to Latam are absurdly expensive (up to 20% per transaction). Conversely, over the past decade, currency depreciation across the region has become unsustainable. (some countries surpassing the trillion percent ). Kontigo solves this with a USDC global wallet & a BTC savings account. - Like Venmo, but on-USDC. - Like Zelle, but for cross-border payments. No limits. - Like Nubank & Revolut, but without inflationary currencies. Bitcoin-backed. User wallets are connected to an AI-private banker on WhatsApp to execute international USDC transactions.



Kontigo

Founded:2023

Team Size:10

Location:San Francisco

### Active Founders

### jesus alberto Castillo ferrer, CEO & Co-founder

I'm a Venezuelan founder obsessed with closing the financial inclusion gap for 1.7 billion humans. - Previously built the largest micro-lending platform in Venezuela, reaching over 500k SMBs in low-income communities with no financial history, implementing Muhammad Yunus methodology powered by ML. - Co-founded the first LLM marketplace in LatAm using micro-payments instead of subscriptions. - Founder at Bicuye, the most exotic Agave-Based Liquour with an Ultra-Premium membership club.



jesus alberto Castillo ferrer

[Kontigo](

### Gino Guatavita, Founder

Co-Founder & CTO at Kontigo. Tackling one of the biggest challenges in the region, access to credit and the financial system. Currently 500M+ people on Latam are under-banked, we are solving this with alternative data, AI and Web3.



### Company Launches

[### Kontigo - A USDC-smart neobank for Latinos](

**TL;DR**; We're connecting all Latinos across the U.S. and Latin America through a single banking app that is global, instant, and stable.

Hi everyone, we are Jesus & Gino, and we’re building [Kontigo]( —**A USDC-smart neobank for Latinos.** (With a Bitcoin piggy bank).



**The real problem:**

*   The fundamental problem behind high fees, underbanked users, and failed currencies, both in Latam and the US, is precisely the same: the lack of a stable currency with global access and minimum government interference.

**The consequence of the problem:**

*   The U.S. is home to 65 million Latinos, representing the fastest-growing population in the country; despite this, 35% of them are underbanked.
*   Each year, Latinos in the U.S. send over $170 billion to Latin America, often incurring fees as high as 20%.
*   Once the money reaches Latam, recipients may incur additional fees of up to 10% to convert and cash out.
*   In contrast, Latin America has a population of 700 million, with 20% of households relying on remittances for income and 75% of the population being underbanked.
*   Latin America's financial fragmentation worsens the problem, with 33 countries using 39 different currencies. Over time, all of these currencies have failed due to devaluation, inflation, and poor monetary policies.

**Kontigo offers a USDC global wallet with a BTC savings account.**

*   Like Venmo, but on USDC.
*   Like Zelle, but for cross-border payments. No limits.
*   Like Nubank & Revolut, but without inflationary currencies. Bitcoin-backed.

Made for real-life use cases—no crypto BS.



User wallets are connected to an **AI-private banker on WhatsApp** for their daily needs.

*   Execute international USDC transactions.
*   Build-Credit. Build Wealth.
*   Plan your BTC retirement.



**We have brought together a “founder mode” dream team!**

*   +10 years building in fintech.
*   CEO prev built the largest micro-lending app in Venezuela.
*   CTO prev built and scaled 2 fintech companies in Colombia, Mexico and Ecuador.
*   CPO prev built A WhatsApp co-pilot for business owners. Ex-Platzi and HolaCasa. (YC companies).
*   COO prev built an LLM marketplace for Latam using micro-payments instead of subscriptions.
*   Head of design prev was founding team at Rappi, Grability, Imaginamos and Yuno.
*   Head of branding prev built an ultra-premium hand-crafted agave spirit brand.
*   Head of Web3 prev built an on-chain grocery delivery app for Colombia.
*   Head of engineering prev was tech lead at Venmo app development. (+Built a B2B payment startup in Mex).
*   Head of Content prev developed Ualá and Mercado Libre marketing strategy.

Kontigo is:

*   Already backed by DST Global, Soma Capital, Pioneer Fund, Transpose, HF0, Founders, Inc. Orange DAO, Optimism. +10 YC Alum.
*   Profitable.
*   +2 year runway.

We are gonna make it because we have done it before.

But this time, we're aiming for the moonshot.

Help us unlock universal wealth :)

Ask:

*   Have a Latino friend? Share the [app]( with friends who need it.
*   Do you know any business, startup, or company that makes cross-border payments or needs a product like ours? Connect us! Contact at [founders@kontigo.lat](mailto:founders@kontigo.lat)

**Stable Currency, Global Access.**

### YC S24 Application Video
