By organizing data, we deliver infrastructure that allows institutions to operate at scale.
En América Latina, millones de pequeñas empresas han operado durante décadas en los márgenes del crédito formal, no por ser riesgosas, sino por ser invisibles ante los ojos de las instituciones financieras. Celero, una fintech brasileña fundada en 2016, ha construido la infraestructura que traduce la realidad financiera de esas empresas a un lenguaje que los bancos pueden leer y actuar. Con una ronda de $2,9 millones liderada por Visa y Headline, la compañía avanza hacia una promesa antigua y esquiva: que comprender bien a un negocio pequeño es, en sí mismo, un acto de inclusión.
- Las pymes latinoamericanas representan la columna vertebral de economías enteras, pero llevan décadas excluidas del crédito formal por la simple ausencia de datos estructurados que los bancos puedan interpretar.
- Celero procesa más de mil millones de reales brasileños al mes y ya trabaja con instituciones como Caixa, Sicredi y Serasa Experian, señal de que el mercado reconoce la urgencia del problema que resuelve.
- La inversión de Visa no es solo financiera: la compañía ve en Celero una palanca estratégica para su propia agenda de inclusión financiera regional y, eventualmente, global.
- La inteligencia artificial que Celero incorpora a sus productos no solo organiza datos existentes, sino que detecta patrones de riesgo y solvencia que el análisis humano tradicional no puede procesar a escala.
- Con ingresos quintuplicados en dos años y respaldo de un actor global como Visa, Celero se posiciona para redefinir cómo los bancos y fintechs diseñan estrategias de crédito para pequeños negocios en toda la región.
Celero, la empresa brasileña de infraestructura de datos fundada en 2016, acaba de cerrar una ronda de $2,9 millones liderada por Visa y el fondo de capital de riesgo Headline. El capital se destinará a acelerar su expansión por América Latina, donde la compañía ha construido algo deceptivamente sencillo pero transformador: un sistema que permite a bancos e instituciones financieras entender a las pequeñas empresas lo suficiente como para prestarles dinero.
El problema que Celero ataca es antiguo y persistente. Las pymes de la región —columna vertebral de economías como la mexicana, donde representan la gran mayoría de las unidades de negocio— han estado excluidas del crédito formal durante décadas. No porque sean intrínsecamente riesgosas, sino porque su información financiera no existe en una forma que los bancos puedan leer. Celero recopila, organiza y traduce los datos que esas empresas ya generan —transacciones, flujos de caja, patrones operativos— a un lenguaje accionable para las instituciones. Hoy procesa más de mil millones de reales brasileños al mes y trabaja con actores como Caixa, Sicredi y Serasa Experian. En dos años, sus ingresos se multiplicaron por cinco.
La inversión de Visa revela una apuesta más amplia. El gigante de pagos ve en Celero una herramienta para su propio objetivo estratégico: expandir la inclusión financiera primero en la región y luego más allá. Nuno Lopes Alves, presidente regional de Visa para América Latina y el Caribe, describió la alianza como una vía para desbloquear valor para millones de pequeños negocios mediante datos y herramientas digitales. La compañía ya insinuó que la colaboración podría escalar globalmente, aprovechando su presencia internacional.
El nuevo capital impulsará el desarrollo de productos con inteligencia artificial que permitan a bancos y fintechs evaluar la salud financiera de las pymes con mayor precisión y diseñar estrategias de crédito más eficientes. Para los dueños de pequeños negocios, el efecto práctico podría ser profundo: el acceso al crédito ha sido históricamente la restricción que mantiene pequeñas a las empresas pequeñas. Si Celero logra convencer a los bancos de que prestarles es seguro y rentable, esa restricción comienza a ceder. La startup no está inventando el crédito ni cambiando las reglas del sistema. Está haciendo visible lo que siempre estuvo ahí.
Celero, a Brazilian data infrastructure company, just closed a $2.9 million funding round led by Visa and the venture fund Headline. The money will fuel expansion across Latin America, where the startup has built something deceptively simple but powerful: a system that teaches banks and financial institutions how to understand small businesses well enough to lend to them.
The problem Celero solves is old and stubborn. Small and medium-sized enterprises across Latin America—they are the backbone of the region's economy, especially in Mexico where they represent the vast majority of all business units—have been locked out of formal credit for decades. Banks don't lend to them not because the businesses are inherently risky, but because the banks have no reliable way to assess them. The financial data doesn't exist in a form banks can read. There is no standardized picture of how a small business actually performs.
Celero, founded in Brazil in 2016, built a platform that collects, organizes, and translates the financial information that small businesses already generate—their transactions, their cash flows, their operational patterns—into a language that financial institutions can understand and act on. The company now processes more than one billion Brazilian reals monthly and works with major players like Caixa, Sicredi, and Serasa Experian. In just two years, its revenue has grown fivefold. João Tosin, the company's CEO and cofounder, describes the work plainly: "By organizing, standardizing and making usable the data of small and medium enterprises, we deliver infrastructure that allows institutions to operate more efficiently, safely and at scale."
Visa's investment signals something larger than one startup's growth. The payments giant sees in Celero a tool for its own strategic goal: expanding financial inclusion across the region and eventually beyond it. Nuno Lopes Alves, Visa's regional president for Latin America and the Caribbean, framed the partnership as a way to unlock value for millions of small businesses through digital tools and data analysis. The company has already hinted that what began as a Latin American collaboration could eventually scale globally, using Visa's worldwide reach to bring the same credit-access infrastructure to small businesses everywhere.
The new capital will accelerate Celero's development of artificial intelligence-powered products designed to let banks and fintechs evaluate small business health with greater precision and design more efficient lending strategies. This is where the real transformation lies. AI doesn't just organize existing data—it finds patterns humans miss, flags risk more accurately, and can process thousands of applications in the time it takes a loan officer to review one.
For small business owners across Latin America, the practical effect could be profound. Access to credit has always been the constraint that keeps small enterprises small. They can't invest in equipment, can't hire, can't weather a slow season. If Celero's technology can convince banks that lending to them is safe and profitable, that constraint loosens. The startup isn't inventing credit or changing lending rules. It's simply making visible what was always there: that small businesses, properly understood, are creditworthy. Visa's bet is that once that visibility exists, the money will follow.
Notable Quotes
By organizing, standardizing and making usable the data of small and medium enterprises, we deliver infrastructure that allows institutions to operate more efficiently, safely and at scale.— João Tosin, CEO and cofounder of Celero
We are enthusiastic about deepening our partnership with Celero to unlock value for millions of small businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean.— Nuno Lopes Alves, Visa's regional president for Latin America and the Caribbean
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a payments company like Visa care about lending to small businesses? That's not their core business.
Visa makes money when money moves. More small businesses with access to credit means more transactions, more volume flowing through their network. It's enlightened self-interest—they grow the pie and capture a slice.
But couldn't any bank build this data infrastructure themselves?
They could, but it's expensive and slow. Celero has already done the hard work of connecting to dozens of financial systems, learning how to standardize messy real-world data. Banks would rather buy the solution than build it from scratch.
What's the actual barrier right now? Why can't a small business just walk into a bank and get a loan?
Because the bank has no way to know if the business will repay. A small business doesn't have audited financial statements or a credit history. Celero translates their actual transaction data into a credit signal the bank can trust.
So this is really about trust—making the invisible visible.
Exactly. The business is real, the cash flows are real, the risk is measurable. Celero just makes it legible to institutions that have the capital to lend.
What happens to the businesses that still can't get loans even with this technology?
That's the harder question. Celero makes lending more efficient and accurate, but it doesn't eliminate risk. Some businesses will still be too volatile or too new. But the threshold shifts. More businesses cross it.