Kushki
Kushki runs licensed payment processing and card acquiring for merchants across Latin America.
On the record
Checkpoint: Kushki's next funding round, first priced event since June 2022
The call
Kushki still holds real regulatory ground in LatAm payments, but shrinking headcount and a frozen valuation raise the question of whether that ground is enough on its own.
Kushki is a payment processor that handles credit card transactions for online and in-person businesses across Latin America. It has special government licenses and direct connections to major card networks that are hard to copy, which protects it from AI tools that can automate fraud detection or transaction routing. However, bigger competitors like dLocal, EBANX, Stripe, and Adyen are moving into the same markets with more money and deeper pockets, and Kushki has cut 31 percent of its workforce since 2023 while its valuation has been frozen at $1.5 billion with no new funding round for four years, suggesting investors have lost confidence. The one thing that could turn this around is either fresh outside funding, a successful acquisition, or proof that the company is keeping its existing customers and not losing ground to those better-funded rivals.
Why
01
AI pressure: None apparent. AI can automate fraud scoring and transaction routing, but that runs on top of Kushki's licenses, not around them. Could AI do the core job? Unlikely.
02
Bigger players: dLocal, EBANX, Stripe, and Adyen. All four already process payments across Mexico and Brazil with more capital, squeezing Kushki's margins even where its licenses hold. Could a giant copy it? Probably.
03
What protects it. Non-bank acquirer licenses and direct card-network connections across multiple LatAm countries, hard for rivals to replicate quickly.
What would change this call
Kushki announces a new priced funding round (up, flat, or down) by mid 2027. Shows whether investors still value Kushki near its 2022 $1.5B mark or are pulling back.
Kushki headcount trend reported by Revelio Labs or similar for 2026. Indicates whether the 2023 to 2025 workforce decline has stabilized or continued.
Public confirmation that a named Kushki customer (Rappi, Santander, Telefonica, Claro) moves processing to dLocal, EBANX, or Stripe. Would show direct customer loss to better capitalized LatAm payment rivals.
Kushki headcount trend reported by Revelio Labs or similar for 2026. Indicates whether the 2023 to 2025 workforce decline has stabilized or continued.
Public confirmation that a named Kushki customer (Rappi, Santander, Telefonica, Claro) moves processing to dLocal, EBANX, or Stripe. Would show direct customer loss to better capitalized LatAm payment rivals.
Key numbers
- Valuation stuck at $1.5B since June 2022
- Headcount down 31% from 2023 to 2025, to 598
- No priced funding round in about 4 years
Named risks
- Valuation frozen at $1.5B since June 2022 with no new priced round through July 2026.
- Headcount fell about 31% from 872 in 2022 to 598 by December 2025.
- Better capitalized rivals dLocal, EBANX, Stripe, and Adyen expanding into core LatAm markets.
- AI-driven commoditization of fraud scoring and transaction routing could compress margins.
- Most 2023-2026 revenue, TPV, and product claims trace to unverified vendor or aggregator sources.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| dLocal | gaining on | Publicly listed on Nasdaq with broader multi-region footprint as of 2026 |
| EBANX | contesting | Reported ~$18B TPV in 2024 (company-claimed) vs Kushki's own $30B TPV claim same year |
| Stripe | gaining on | Expanding enterprise merchant coverage into Mexico and Brazil as of 2026 |
| Adyen | gaining on | Expanding into Mexico and Brazil, overlapping Kushki's acquiring markets, 2026 |
Questions people ask
- Is Kushki profitable in 2026?
- Kushki has not disclosed audited financials, and no profitability figures are public. The company last confirmed 200% revenue growth in 2021 and 100% YoY growth in Q2 2022 (TechCrunch, 2022-06-07), but no independent 2025 or 2026 revenue or profit data exists to confirm current financial health.
- Has Kushki raised new funding since becoming a unicorn?
- No. Kushki's last confirmed raise was a $100M Series B extension in June 2022 that pushed its valuation above $1.5B (TechCrunch, 2022-06-07). As of July 2026, no new priced round, down-round, or acquisition has been publicly reported, a four-year funding silence.
- Who is Kushki's biggest competitor?
- Kushki competes with dLocal, a Nasdaq-listed public company with a broader emerging-markets footprint, and EBANX, which reportedly processed about $18B in TPV in 2024 (company-claimed, via canvasbusinessmodel.com, 2026-03-20). Stripe and Adyen are also expanding into Kushki's core Mexico and Brazil markets.
- Could AI replace Kushki's core business?
- AI can commoditize fraud scoring and transaction routing, industry-wide 98% of fraud/AML firms use AI in some form per a SEON 2026 report (2026-02-24), but Kushki's licensed non-bank acquirer status and direct card-network integrations across Mexico and Chile are regulatory moats AI cannot replicate.
- What is Kushki's current valuation?
- Kushki's valuation was set at over $1.5B on June 7, 2022, when it raised a $100M Series B extension and became Ecuador's first unicorn (TechCrunch, 2022-06-07). No subsequent priced round has updated that figure through July 2026.
- Is Kushki the same company as Kueski?
- No. Kushki is an Ecuador-founded LatAm payments infrastructure company valued at $1.5B since June 2022. Kueski is a separate Mexican buy-now-pay-later lender that hired a new VP of Fraud from Robinhood in February 2026 (Yahoo Finance, 2026-02-26); the two are frequently confused due to similar names.
Timeline
- 2025-12Headcount falls to about 598 employees, a 31% decline since 2023 (Revelio Labs)
- 2023-10-12Launches non-bank acquirer merchant-acquiring service across LatAm
- 2022-06-07Raises $100M Series B extension, hits $1.5B valuation, becomes Ecuador's first unicorn
- 2022-06-07States plan to hire 1,000+ employees by end of 2022
- 2021Raises $86M Series B at roughly $600M valuation
- 2020Raises $8M Series A led by Kaszek Ventures and others
Revision history
29 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- Kushki Becomes Ecuador's First Unicorn (2022-06-07)
- Ecuadorian payments infrastructure startup Kushki lands $100M at a $1.5B valuation (2022-06-07)
- Ecuador's First Unicorn... (2023-01-17)
- How Does Kushki Company Work? (2026-03-16)
- Kushki Number of Employees 2026 (2026-06-29)
- Kushki, the Payment Platform, is the New Latam's Unicorn (2022-06-07)
- What is Brief History of Kushki Company? (2026-03-15)
- Kushki's path to LATAM's first next-gen payment acquirer (2023-10-12)
- Online Payment Solutions for E-commerce in LATAM
- What is Competitive Landscape of EBANX Company? (2026-03-20)
- EBANX vs. dLocal
- SEON's 2026 Fraud & AML Report (2026-02-24)