There was a time when doing business across Latin America could mean juggling multiple banks, multiple payment providers – or, in some cases, bartering goods because moving money was just too painful.
Diego Yanez built alfred to end that.
Fresh off announcing the company has raised a total of $15 million – including a $13 million Series A led by F-Prime – Yanez said the round came together quickly.
“We kicked off the process to raise around June [of last year],” Yanez told Refresh Miami. “We already knew the F-Prime team through our seed round. They didn’t invest at that point, but they were interested in what we were building. So we pretty much picked it up where we left off.”
alfred sits at the intersection of cross-border trade and stablecoins, an area that has seen steady growth as global businesses look for faster settlement and better access to Latin America.
What’s key to alfred’s growth? “It’s timing and executing upon that timing,” Yanez said. “In terms of timing, things cannot be any better for our company right now. So the latter is the more important thing.”
Diego Yanez, founder and CEO of alfred.
alfred gives foreign businesses named local accounts in markets like Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina. For instance: a company in China can collect payments in Argentina into a local account, while alfred handles settlement behind the scenes.
“Our main product today at alfred is giving businesses virtual accounts,” Yanez explained. “Via stablecoins, we’re actually able to settle those funds in real time in their local currency.”
What’s notable is that many customers don’t even know stablecoins are involved. “I would say 60% of the customers that we have today don’t know that we use stablecoins at all,” he said. “They just know that alfred is an easier way, a 2.0 version on how they can move their money globally.”
Latin America is often treated as one big market, but operators know better. “LatAm has mala fama of being considered like one country and that’s not true at all,” Yanez said. “It’s not the same if they want to operate in Mexico or they want to operate in Argentina.”
alfred’s strategy is what he calls “two inches wide, 20 feet deep” – going deep in each country, building local banking ties and infrastructure, then unifying it under one API so clients can expand across borders without rebuilding everything.
The company now has 65 employees, with nine based in Coral Gables. “Miami is the best,” Yanez said. Early advisers and investors in the city helped open doors. “All we really had to do is execute upon those relationships and show that we’re competent people.”
Looking ahead, alfred is expanding into Brazil and re-entering the Dominican Republic. But Yanez’s ambition goes beyond geography.
“My vision for it is LatAm,” he said. “We really want to go deeper into the region because we believe as we build this technology for the region, in some way, we’re bringing resources back to the region.”
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I am a Miami-based technology researcher and writer with a passion for sharing stories about the South Florida tech ecosystem. I particularly enjoy learning about GovTech startups, cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence, and innovators that leverage technology to transform society for the better. Always open for pitches via Twitter @rileywk or www.RileyKaminer.com.
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