SCF18: $136,294 

We have completed all the deliverables in this submission and more on top of them, except for 2, due to partner’s disruption of services.

1. Pentest: we have the budget allocated and already negotiated terms, and we are going to carry it out once the off-ramps are automated. Since right now we are handling off-ramps manually, and we are looking to automate it in the next 3 months, we decided to carry it out then. 

2. Pharmacies voucher: We worked on this for a few months and with one network we alpha tested the QR for making purchases - delivered via whatsapp - we established the product architecture and made a new hire to develop only this product. The flow there is to tap into the pharmacies ‘point reward system, with which they are already familiar, thus causing the least possible lift on their part to integrate with us. We also negotiated terms and the integration path with another provider that aggregates payout options (10.000 businesses connected) for a voucher-like feature. We could not move further on this because of service disruptions from local offramps we were using, so we had to start developing that solution in-house, as the off-ramp capability is instrumental to leverage this service. However this is still very much in our product roadmap. Once this is in production we’ll tap into a network of 100,000 users leveraging our partner’s service.

We are currently in production end-to-end with the US part fully automated and just testing some minor changes we made due to compliance updates and mostly testing off-ramps with this new in -house structure.

The rest was all carried out without significant issues and in addition: we have rebranded following user’s feedback and experience; we are internalizing a large process (off-ramp); further improved the UX and UI based on users feedback (see attached). 

SCF13: $35,000

We completed all the deliverables of this submission. As per my forecast at time the largest threat to our expediency to market was going to be the instability and disruptions of various providers and in fact we were hit on separate fronts, but managed to find better/newer solutions when possible or develop some in-house. 

Puenta is our new money transfer app that allows latino migrants in the US to send money back to their families in Colombia - these funds are sent and received as USDC. Recipients have two choices, first, save their funds in USDC or withdraw them in fiat to a local bank account or e-money app. If you are already familiar with our project, you might have noticed that we have rebranded: we started out as KometPay, today we are Puenta. The decision came after our first beta and consequent consumer discovery. We put a lot of time into talking to users, especially prospective ones, understanding their experience and how we can better help them. Among our early community we noticed a common issue: KometPay and its branding was not the best way to communicate to them who we are and what we do. Ultimately, what we want the users to see is a company of Latinos, that experienced the same problem and knows how and where it needs fixing, and our new image of Puenta, is more suited to that message. Our vision is to be an application that offers new financial services that migrants have no or limited access to: the goal is that as we gain users for the money transfer, they will start using more and more other services that we’ll offer, like vouchers, retirement plans, real estate plans and more. 

The immediate problem that we are tackling is expensive, unstable and slow cross-border payments between the US and LatAm, specifically in that ticket range of $50-$200, for which fees are heavier. With our current fee structure, users that would send $100/month over a year would save an average of 50% in fees compared to other e-money apps. However, as an outcome of our first beta and consumer discoveries, we observed that the problem goes deeper than that. We can broadly categorize remitters in two groups: those that send money to someone else, and those that send money to their own account abroad, as saving or investment. For the first category, there is a huge concern around money management for the funds that are sent; we are working on vouchers that grant peace of mind to the sender, such that if you send $100 for groceries, they can only be redeemed for that. We already negotiated terms and integration paths with several networks of shops, but we couldn’t move forward due to local infrastructure’s disruption - we are building this in-house so as to rely less on partner’s stability. For the latter category of senders, those that send to themselves, they have a series of added problems where they have to manage their LatAm savings or investments with minimal banking services opportunities. We are looking to develop an in-app connection to real estate opportunities in Colombia and retirement savings’ accounts. 

The initial target audience is latino migrants that work in the US, getting paid minimum wage or slightly more than that, specifically in the Florida and NY area, however we want to expand to more latino demographics. The main benefit is that users can send money on a more regular basis, following their paycheck timeline (eg. If they get paid weekly, they can send small weekly transfers, rather than wait 1-2 months to reach that target $700-$1000 ticket range, which is when the fees become more bearable, albeit still expensive). Another added value of our offering is that they send USD value, so they do not have to monitor exchanges and wait for a good moment for the recipients to get COP, as they also receive USD - that conversion becomes a choice of the recipient, that they can monitor directly when they need to off-ramp funds.

Initially we started out as a purely Stellar based application, leveraging only anchors and SEPs. Due to some providers change and/or disruption of services (eg. Wyre and more), we had to adapt and make some changes. We integrated with a new provider in the USA that offers payments infrastructure and, as we made a strong case, they added USDC_Stellar asset (the one and only stablecoin we use to move any amount of money into our platform) and we became their first ever Stellar based money transfer app. Due to compliance scrutiny we had to compromise and operate initially with a ‘Master bank account’ in their system rather than giving senders a Stellar non-custodial wallet (as we did initially), but after we've met certain compliance and volume milestones, we’ll be able to revert to that structure.

We have also had to make some changes to our Colombian operation. We tried a few options and, after our beta, we did not find a performing enough solution to launch so we decided to build an internal liquidity management system to provide our own COP off-ramp. Once this system is established, we plan to offer it to all other Stellar base wallets that need a Colombian off-ramp. We have had conversations with other ecosystem companies and there is an interest that justify adding this different vertical, but we do not have it in the present roadmap just yet. 

In spite of rapid changes with the regulatory environment, we still want to keep our application as a Stellar based application - whether we need to make a case for it with providers that do not support it yet or build some infrastructure ourselves, like we do in Colombia.

Paolo Astone (discord: paoloastone)

Co-founder and Co-CEO

Paolo graduated with Merit from SOAS University of London, undertaking a BA Politics with a specific focus on the politics and economics of emerging markets – specifically Africa and Latin America. After graduation he worked as a journalist at the Financial Times, covering a variety of FDI related topics, but keeping as the main area of focus developments in tech, LatAm and Africa.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paolo-astone-57317a147/

Nicolas Zuleta (discord: nzuleta #0933)

Co-founder and Co-CEO

Nicolas completed his BSc PPE from the London School of Economics, and has since been a consultant for multinational and Fortune 500 companies doing business in Latin America to mitigate regulatory, financial and political risk. Nicolas has experienced remittances firsthand, understanding the burden as a migrant worker in the UK and having worked at Panama’s largest Western Union agent.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-zuleta/

Gerardo Rossler (Bigger)

Back end developer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerardo-rossler

Luis Verguera (Bigger)

Front end and web developer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-vergera

(new hire - onboarding via Bigger) 

Product lead 

Leonel Gauna (Bigger) 

Chapter lead 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonel-gauna-15590716b/

Malen Carol (Bigger) 

Project Manager  

https://www.linkedin.com/in/malen-carol-096435235/

Laura Posso 

Growth Advisor (ex-Rappi, growth lead at RappiPay)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraposso0111/

Legal representative (Independent firm in Bogotà)

Attorney – Specialized in De-Fi and Blockchain

Our Team is set up for success because:

As co-founders, we - Nicolas and Paolo - offer a powerful blend of regional and business expertise. Understanding local dynamics, network effects and perception of ‘money’ and ‘value’ is truly necessary to develop a fintech product set up for success and positive impact in the region.

Since day 1 we have been looking to surround us with experienced team members, advisors and investors. While this process is far from over, we have come a long way since we started. Today we are supported by a former twice YC-alumno that has launched and scaled incredible companies in LatAm and by a growth expert, an ex-Rappi growth lead (specifically on RappiPay, Rappi’s fintech arm), who is working with us on our growth strategy.  

All our tech team has been learning about Stellar for as much as they have been learning the traditional tech stack. They have already successfully built solutions and integrated multiple Stellar anchors, including Wyre white label wallet, MoonPay, Stably and Anclap.

Our development team joined Puenta a year ago, but their dedication and strive have truly impacted positively the company, helping us to quickly bring an MVP to market. Having a Latino majority team, we personally understand the barriers to access to financial tools in the region. Our developers started out as students of the r/Argentina Programa, led by Fabricio Sodano , and are now part of our team through Bigger. 

Deliverables 

1. Automate COP disbursement - platform integration with Cobre

This integration will allow us to carry fiat disbursement automatically and review only compliance flagged transactions instead of every single one. Currently we carry out the process manually, which is very limited, time consuming and with margin for error, once this integration is completed it will allow us to manage both KYC status and disbursement in the same environment. 

Measure completion: via code review/Control panel demonstration 

Completed by: 31 July 2024

Budget: $26,400 

2. Implement liquidity management internal process (USDC_Stellar - COP)
   This is an internal tool that we need to manage the volume of the USDC sent with an available reserve of COP for offramps - it also ensure that we are topping up the liquidity with a favorable exchange rate so that we can always offer mid market rate and not charge a spread on the exchange to the users. 

Mesure completion: Code review/Algorithm diagram

Completed by: 31 July 2024

Budget: $6,600

3. Integration with OTC desk - Vita (exchange USDC_Stellar - COP)

Right now trades with the OTC are manual so the only way to check the OTC's FX for COP  is to request a quote, plus trades can take up to 12 hours. By connecting to their APIs, we can retrieve the FX rate at any time and we can set rules that allow us to move funds at more favorable times (FX wise) instead of relying on manual processes. This integration works closely with deliverable 2. 

Mesure completion: Code review/Architecture review

Completed by: 31 July 2024

Budget: $6,600

4. Integration with OTC desk - Kravata (exchange USDC_Stellar - COP)

This is too closely connected to deliverables 2 and 3. In order to make the best use of Deliverable 2 we need at least connection to 2 OTCs, so that we can request quotes simultaneously and always choose the most competitive one, rather than relying on a single one. Currently, we rely on manual trades for this OTC too. 

Mesure completion: Code review/Architecture review

Completed by: 31 July 2024

Budget: $6,600

5. Refactor and push API V2 of the app in pre-release of V2 app on testflight and google sdk + testing 

We have integrated with 2 providers in Colombia which did not work and ended up connecting to separate infrastructure providers to build the rail we needed, though managed manually right now (Cobre, Kravata, Vita). In the US we integrated with 4 providers of which only one - the one we are in production with currently - ended up working as supposed. This left us with significant process and code bloat which will now be simplified in the V2 of the API and will include the previously manual processes fully automated and ready to target a wider audience. 

Mesure completion: Live demo/ Live test/ Recording of new flows/ Anyone with a US bank account or a Colombian one can try it

Completed by: 31 July 2024

Budget: $19,800

Q2 ‘24: Internalizing liquidity management, API refactor and re-release to users (currently prod. testing) + Automate internal off-ramp processes (Where current deliverables fit in)

Q3 ‘24: Solidify early adopters community in Miami and NY, and grow user base (target $200.000/month in volume) + Optimize internal off-ramp processes 

Q4 ‘24: Referral program to reach $750.000/month in volume and introduce alternative features to money transfer

Currently we are in the midst of our second fundraise and are in conversation with several VC funds and accelerators (Alliance DAO and Antler). The aim is to raise $750.000 to solidify our company’s core teams, make a few strategic hires and make a medium-long term plan for a structure that allows us to bring our app to more users. Ideally we see this as a bridge round that should last us 6 - 8 months and bring us to an exclusively VC led round - as we are considering accelerators too right now - and this round is what we need to build our core teams into an investable company. The capital allocation would be on the product & tech team (50% of funds) and data team and processes (30% of funds), and growth team and initial campaigns (20% of funds). 

We know full well that, currently, fundraising for a remittance startup is hard: many VCs and investors got burned in this space and we need to convince them that the way we are tackling the problem is the only way to break the vicious cycle in which remittances startups are stuck. Competition is harsh and it’s not a ‘helpful’ competition: it is mostly a war on deals and promotions that are unsustainable in the long term and bring only temporary volume increases. We want to move beyond this and that’s what we are communicating to investors.