Consider the tax bill. Ecuador’s tax authority, the SRI, wanted citizens to pay from a phone or computer instead of joining a queue. Kushki supplied the payment technology. Yet a familiar obstacle appeared inside the new convenience: some people struggled with credit-card authentication. A taxpayer could have the money, the intention and the correct website, and still encounter a rejected transaction. The last few seconds of paying had become the whole problem.
- Kushki builds payment infrastructure for enterprises and other payment providers.
- Its regional platform covers five Latin American countries, with direct acquiring in four.
- The useful question: how much of a failed payment can your provider actually fix?
That small frustration explains a large part of Kushki’s business. A checkout page is where a payment becomes visible. Beneath it sit networks, authentication, risk decisions and reconciliation. Each can introduce friction. In its account of the SRI project, published in April 2026, Kushki describes improving the credit-card and 3DS experience alongside the authority’s technical team. The lesson is practical: putting a service online begins the work of making it usable.
01 / A gateway grows downward
Aron Schwarzkopf and Sebastián Castro founded Kushki in 2017. The company’s corporate history places its beginning in New York, followed by expansion into Ecuador. By 2020, it was operating in Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru too. Its name means money in Kichwa. The name is local; the operating problem crosses borders.
A business expanding across those countries needs more than a translated checkout. Payment methods, counterparties and operating requirements change. Kushki’s response was to build a regional platform and then take responsibility for more of the transaction. In 2023, it began non-bank acquiring in Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia, using its own standardized processing platform and primary memberships with Visa and Mastercard.
Direct network connections remove an additional acquiring intermediary. Issuers, network rules and local requirements still matter.
An acquirer connects merchants to card-payment networks. Moving into that role gave Kushki a more direct relationship with the systems behind approval and processing. That is the distinction worth watching when comparing it with a gateway that passes transactions onward. Greater control creates more opportunities to investigate problems; it does not guarantee that every customer’s card will clear.
02 / The token is the relationship
For Comunidad Feliz, software used to administer buildings and condominiums, payments are part of an ongoing relationship with residents. Monthly charges return. So do questions about who controls the information that makes the next payment possible.
Kushki’s April 2026 Comunidad Feliz case study says token control helped drive the platform’s search for an acquiring partner. Tokens substitute for sensitive card details in payment systems. The platform wanted to retain control of its information while improving payment success and supporting expansion beyond Chile. Kushki describes an API integration and its own Chilean acquiring capability as parts of the answer.
This is a useful buying lesson. Ask what happens to stored payment credentials, how transaction data reaches your team, and who helps when something goes wrong. A fee comparison alone will miss those questions. For a service collecting the same household’s charges repeatedly, continuity is part of the product.
03 / From tuition to the restaurant terminal
The product range follows the places money moves. PayIns collects payments through APIs, hosted forms, payment buttons, ecommerce plugins and Smartlinks. PayOuts sends money to suppliers, employees and partners. In-person acceptance extends the platform to the counter. The PSP offering lists physical payments in Mexico and Chile, a reminder that regional coverage does not mean identical availability everywhere.
At Lima’s Santa María Marianistas school, technology partner JDB already operated the digital environment families used. Kushki joined that environment with recurring payments, transfers, payment links and consolidated reporting. A March 2026 company case study reports 95% acceptance. That figure belongs to this implementation. Its broader relevance is the combination: payment collection and the administrative record of that collection arrive together.
The restaurant case is less tidy. Cervecería de Barrio had faced terminal connectivity problems and difficulty tracking transactions and chargebacks. Working through Motygam, Kushki supplied terminals and a real-time portal; financing came separately from partner Anticipa. Its February 2026 case study attributes roughly MX$500,000 in annual avoided losses to reduced chargebacks. Payments, support and financing did different jobs. Keeping those roles clear makes the story useful.
04 / What the machinery costs
Building the platform required capital. Kushki announced an $86 million Series B in 2021, then a $100 million extension in June 2022, bringing that round to $186 million. The extension valued the company at $1.5 billion at the time. Later that summer, it acquired Mexican terminal business Billpocket. The purchase price was undisclosed.
For merchants, the economics are more immediate. Kushki’s pricing page describes a fixed processing fee plus a fee determined by payment method, with monthly billing minimums depending on country and merchant size. The appeal therefore depends on volume and the work being replaced. A small operation with occasional sales should examine those minimums carefully. International-card acceptance also requires a risk review.
“connecting Latin America through payments”Kushki’s stated mission
05 / Copy the diagnosis
Kushki also serves payment companies. Its Pagsmile partnership combines API work, fraud controls and local support for a provider whose main team is in Asia. Time zones become an operating issue alongside technology. Kushki’s employment proposition, meanwhile, includes remote work and professional development, consistent with a business assembling expertise across markets.
The latest engineering detail makes the strategy concrete. September 2026 release notes introduce a fraud-alert endpoint for Visa and Mastercard records on Kushki acquiring transactions. Teams can query records rather than wait for a manually delivered file. The scope matters: those networks, those acquiring transactions.
The part other builders can copy is the diagnosis. Find where an otherwise willing customer gets stopped. Trace the failure beyond the screen. Decide which connection, data right or operating task deserves more control. Kushki’s wager is that enough of those small repairs, repeated across countries, become a business other businesses can build on.