Gaston Irigoyen
Podcast appearances as guest
Fintech across Latam with Gaston Irigoyen (Episode 51)
In this episode, I sit down with Gaston Irigoyen, CEO and founder of Pomelo.
On the podcast
Gaston was one of Google's first employees in Latin America and later worked on the team that first monetised YouTube in Europe.
His first startup, Guide Central, a mobile content app for creators, was sold to wikiHow after about four years.
Gaston previously built the Argentine neobank Naranja X; his co-founder Hernán spent 12 years at Mercado Pago.
Pomelo, founded in 2021, handles regulatory and card network licences itself so customers can issue and process cards across eight Latin American markets with one integration.
Companies expanding across five Latin American countries used to need 30–50 infrastructure partners.
Pomelo raised a $55 million Series C co-led by Kaszek and Insight Partners, taking total funding to $160 million; the round took three months from kickoff to close.
Pomelo's customers include BBVA, BCI, Bancolombia, Binance, Bybit, ARQ, Lemon and PayJoy.
Pomelo launched a global card programme that can issue and process in more than 150 markets and hired a former Mastercard, Santander and SoFi executive to lead it.
Pomelo's treasury and settlement are fully mirrored in fiat and stablecoins, and about 20–25% of its customers now use stablecoins.
The first ChatGPT e-commerce purchase in Latin America was made with a Pomelo-issued card tokenised for an agent.