Kapital as LatAm SME Operating System
Fernando Sandoval, co-founder of Kapital, on tropicalizing Brex for LatAm
Kapital is trying to collapse what is separate software stacks in the U.S. into one operating system for LatAm SMEs. In the U.S., a finance team might use Brex for cards, Ramp for spend controls, Bill.com for payables, and Mercury for banking. Kapital combines bank accounts, cards, supplier payments, working capital, treasury, and a live cash flow dashboard in one place, which matters more in Latin America where SMEs are less software served and cash flow shocks are more severe.
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The product is not just a card plus expense tool. Kapital charges for a core dashboard, then cross sells lending, payments, and treasury. Its Flex product lets a business pay suppliers now and repay over months, which turns cash flow management into a daily workflow instead of a side feature.
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The U.S. comparison is revealing because Brex and Ramp each expanded outward from cards and spend, while Kapital started from the idea that SMEs need one screen showing sales, expenses, receivables, payables, and financing options together. That makes the bank account and data layer the center of the product, not the card.
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This bundle is easier to build in LatAm because the competitive field is thinner. Kapital used its Mexico banking license and Autofin acquisition to control deposits and time to market, then grew deposits from $241M in Q1 2024 to $569M in Q4 2024 while scaling to $184M annualized revenue in 2024.
The next step is for SMB banking in LatAm to look less like a payments app and more like lightweight ERP plus embedded finance. If Kapital keeps owning the daily system of record for cash in and cash out, it can keep adding payroll, HR, contractor payouts, and AI driven financial operations on top of the same account base.