Kapital focuses on collections

Diving deeper into

René Saul and Fernando Sandoval, co-founders at Kapital, on the fintech opportunity in LatAm

Interview
This business is not about lending, it's about collecting.
Analyzed 5 sources

Kapital is building a cash flow control system that happens to include credit, not a credit product that hopes repayment works out. The key advantage is seeing who paid, who still owes money, what invoices are due, and how fast cash actually turns, then using that live operating picture to decide limits, collect faster, and cross sell cards, payables, treasury, and working capital with less guesswork.

  • Kapital starts with the business dashboard. It pulls in e invoices, receivables, payables, sales, and expenses, then charges a monthly fee for that operating view. Lending sits on top of that data, which makes underwriting closer to reading the companys cash register than reviewing stale financial statements.
  • This is why management talks about collection before lending. In LatAm SMB finance, the real risk is not whether a customer wants credit, but whether cash arrives on time when big buyers stretch payment terms from 90 to 120 or 150 days. Kapitals products are built to close that gap and get paid back from observed business flow.
  • The contrast with U.S. players like Brex and Ramp is concrete. Those products center on card spend and expense controls, while Kapital tries to own both sides of the ledger, money out and money in. Comparable LatAm players like CloudWalk also use payment data to improve underwriting, showing how transaction visibility becomes the core moat.

The next phase is deeper automation of the finance loop. As Kapital adds AI reporting, payment automation, treasury, and supplier financing on top of bank account visibility, the winner in LatAm SMB fintech will look less like a card issuer and more like the system that sees cash earliest, moves it fastest, and collects it most reliably.