We Met w Rappi’s CEO & Got Backed by Founders, Inc. — a bank-built-in WhatsApp

This is the story of how we launched a bank built-in-WhatsApp within 8 weeks — got funded & met with the big boss of Rappi.

What’s up — this is Jesus

So, first things first — excited to share that we’re officially a portfolio company of f.inc

8 weeks ago, we created Kontigo, a bank built into WhatsApp for LatAm, where small groups join to pay, save, and lend money together.

Our top users are drivers from Rappi in Colombia & Mexico.

But this email isn’t about the product.

It's about how we got here.

We were born & raised in Latin America, a region where 7 out of 10 citizens can't access credit.

That’s 450 million people. 170M of these are gig workers. We have been there.

Gino and I arrived in SF, from Colombia and Venezuela.

Both of us combined, barely had $1.5k in our pockets.

We used it to pay for a shared room in a 100 person co-living space,

and started building Kontigo at buildspace.so/sf1

— since then,

We’ve acquired a network of 160,000 drivers from all major gig apps — Rappi, Uber, Didi, Cabify, etc.

Which led us to meet with Simon Borrero, the Founder & CEO of Rappi.

This journey is just getting started, but let me tell you, it's becoming incredibly exciting.

So, why a bank built into WhatsApp? — 92% of the population in LatAm uses WhatsApp daily.

We're building a modern bank infrastructure for them, using LLMs.

— Hoping the next meeting will be with Zuck, will keep you posted.

:)

Jesus & Gino — Kontigo, Inc.