Colombian fintech Minka lands $24m

Colombian fintech Minka has raised $24 million in fresh capital in a funding round led by Tiger Global and Kaszek.

Minka CEO Domagoj Rozic

The firm aims to modernise the payments infrastructure of clearinghouses and central banks and enable organisations to publish and move money in real time.

Its payments network links up legacy systems through blockchains and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to streamline complex money flows, helping money move through the system without the need for reconciliation.

The TransfiYa project, built on the network in partnership with ACH Colombia, a banking payment solutions and financial services firm, has already seen nearly two million users.

It enables direct read and write API access to 80% of Colombian bank accounts, making it the largest open banking project in the Latin American region.

The project allows people to send money via mobile and will soon support one-click purchases, payouts and collections.

Minka CEO Domagoj Rozic says the company’s goal is to connect the world’s balances through the web using shared, connected distributed ledger technology (DLT).

“The project in Colombia has proven this is possible and has become one of the fastest-growing real-time payments networks in the region, enabling previously slow money to move instantly and with minimal cost,” Rozic adds.

The firm says the cash will be spent on its ongoing clearinghouse and central bank infrastructure modernisation project. Resources will also be channeled towards expanding its network through a full self-service platform for publishing and moving money to organisations.