{"id":394817,"date":"2026-09-09T14:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T14:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/394817\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T14:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T14:40:08","slug":"koywes-answer-to-slow-international-payments-started-with-a-lifelong-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/394817\/","title":{"rendered":"Koywe\u2019s answer to slow international payments started with a lifelong friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Ignacio Detmer\u2019s former company, the promise was simple: Sell your car and get paid within an hour. Keeping that promise was harder. Before a busy holiday weekend, the company had to move enough cash into the right market days ahead of time. A bad forecast could leave customers waiting and trust broken.<\/p>\n

That memory now helps explain Koywe<\/a>, the financial infrastructure company Detmer built with Guillermo Acu\u00f1a, his friend since age five. Its platform lets businesses move money into, out of and across Latin America within minutes, even on weekends.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been friends since we were five years old,\u201d Detmer told Refresh Miami. Both Chilean founders later built large technology companies separately. Acu\u00f1a co-founded digital lender Cumplo, while Detmer helped start Frontier Car Group. In 2022, they decided the timing was finally right to work together.<\/p>\n

They entered Y Combinator in January 2023 with, as Detmer put it, \u201cno problem, no customers, no tech.\u201d What they soon found was a region poorly connected to the United States and the wider financial system.<\/p>\n

Koywe became a treasury platform for companies operating across those gaps. Businesses can collect local payments, exchange currencies and settle funds in fiat or stablecoins. Its controls can support complex approval rules, while customers can use the website, an API or even connect the service to an AI assistant.<\/p>\n

Acu\u00f1a recently tested the value himself. Another service estimated three days to send money from the United States to Chile, and a traditional wire left him unsure how many pesos would arrive. With Koywe, he completed the transfer \u201cwithin minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re redefining the time dimension of moving money, but also the prices, the transparency, and the visibility,\u201d Acu\u00f1a said. The aim, he added, was to let companies focus on growth instead of cash placement.<\/p>\n

\u2713<\/p>\n

Check your inbox for a confirmation email.<\/p>\n

Koywe now has about 100 employees and operates across seven Latin American markets. The company processes more than $2 billion in annual transaction volume and has raised $12.5 million from investors including Y Combinator, Franklin Templeton, and Concentric VC.<\/p>\n

Miami serves as its U.S. base. Detmer moved here six years ago and sees the city as a meeting point for U.S. investors, regional business leaders and crypto partners. \u201cMiami is the capital of Latin America,\u201d he said. Acu\u00f1a, now based in Santiago, noted that flying between Latin American cities can be harder than meeting through Miami.<\/p>\n

The pair\u2019s recent selection as Endeavor Entrepreneurs adds a global support network to that base. For Acu\u00f1a, it also comes with a distinctly local perk: he said he was happy to attend Endeavor Miami\u2019s barbecues. (We can\u2019t blame him.)<\/p>\n

Their selection followed an International Selection Panel in Athens, capping a relationship that began through Endeavor ScaleUp.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re living in a world where there\u2019s hypergrowth. AI is changing how we operate. It\u2019s still difficult to see or predict how the future is going to look. But I believe being part of the Endeavor community, especially Endeavor Miami, is going to play a big part in our success,\u201d Acu\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n

Pictured above: Koywe Co-founders Guillermo Acu\u00f1a, at left, and Ignacio Detmer.<\/p>\n

READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:<\/p>\n

\"Riley<\/a> <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Riley<\/a>Latest posts by Riley Kaminer (see all<\/a>) \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At Ignacio Detmer\u2019s former company, the promise was simple: Sell your car and get paid within an hour.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-394817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}