In 2013, CloudWalk was founded with a bold vision: revolutionize the payments industry in Brazil by empowering Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs), fintechs, and sub-acquirers to become the most efficient players in the market.
Its Founder & CEO, Luis Silva, was born in Franca, a 350-thousand people city in the countryside of São Paulo, and rose from humble beginnings. A self-taught programmer who started coding in his teenage years, Luis attended Singularity University and founded multiple companies before founding CloudWalk. A serial entrepreneur and visionary, Luis identified Brazil’s payment system’s outdated and rigid structure, which was long dominated by a few large players, as a prime opportunity for disruption and a great place to start.
In its early years, CloudWalk set out to transform the payments landscape by developing a cloud-based, hardware-agnostic platform that seamlessly integrated cutting-edge blockchain and AI technologies. With a commitment to building a best-in-class engineering culture, CloudWalk aims to empower its clients with innovative and superior payment solutions. This ambitious initiative was just the beginning of a larger vision: to evolve into a fully integrated, end-to-end acquirer bank initially in Brazil and then expand globally. Through relentless innovation and strategic foresight, CloudWalk successfully positioned itself to challenge the status quo and redefine the future of payment processing.
Revolutionizing the Brazilian Payments Industry
The Brazilian payments market has historically been a complex and challenging environment, characterized by a multi-layered structure involving issuing banks, card networks, acquirers, sub-acquirers, and ISOs, all within a heavily regulated industry. Major acquirers like Cielo and Rede dominated the market for years, offering minimal technological advancements in card-present payments. However, the breakup of the duopoly in the 2010s, along with a growing demand for innovation, opened the door for new players like CloudWalk.
Having previously invested in Stone’s Series B round and successfully exited during its IPO, we recognized CloudWalk’s potential to become a leading third-generation merchant acquirer. The company quickly gained momentum by offering a versatile platform that enabled the acceptance of a wide array of payment methods, from traditional options like Visa and Mastercard to emerging technologies like ERC20 tokens.
CloudWalk initially focused on developing cloud-based, hardware-agnostic software that not only simplified the setup and customization of POS hardware but also integrated seamlessly with the broader payment ecosystem. The platform offered advanced analytics, split payment capabilities, and a blockchain ledger for fintechs, sub-acquirers, and ISO that ensured secure transaction records and regulatory compliance. By addressing the technological gaps in card-present payment solutions, CloudWalk built the essential technology stack needed to position itself as a leading merchant acquirer.
CloudWalk: A New Era in Merchant Acquiring
After becoming a merchant acquirer in 2019 and adopting a distinctive approach to the Brazilian payment industry, CloudWalk has rapidly emerged as a key player in the market. The company now supports over 2 million merchants, driving annualized net revenue of $500M with impressive high double-digit growth, all while sustaining robust profitability. Unlike competitors with organizations comprising thousands of employees and relying heavily on offline acquisition channels, CloudWalk employs an organic and digital customer acquisition strategy, operating with an impressively lean team of just over 500 people.
CloudWalk’s success is driven by its innovative product lineup, including InfinitePay, which offers highly competitive transaction fees and a robust AI-driven antifraud product, responsible for saving merchants R$10 billion in potential losses within just one year. Additionally, their AI agent, Claudio Walker, has significantly boosted their profitability and operational efficiency, saving over R$100 million in servicing costs in 2023.
CloudWalk’s extensive product suite for merchants includes Infinite Nitro for instant payouts, Payment Link for seamless online transactions, Supercobra for streamlined accounts receivable management, and the proprietary tap-to-pay solution, Infinite Tap. Additionally, CloudWalk offers AI-driven lending through Infinite Cash and supports instant payments via PIX processing, making it one of the most comprehensive and fast-growing payment platforms globally. Despite these robust offerings, CloudWalk commands just over 1% of the market share—an indication that it’s still early days and the company is only beginning to tap into its full potential. With numerous new features in development and rolling out at an exceptionally rapid pace, CloudWalk is well-positioned for significant growth ahead.
Our Partnership with CloudWalk
We recognized CloudWalk’s potential early on, leading us to participate in its Series A round in 2018. Since then, we’ve continued to support the company’s impressive growth, joining two subsequent funding rounds alongside Investors such as Coatue and DST. CloudWalk has become one of our largest investments to date on a combined fund basis, reflecting our deep confidence in its future.
Our partnership with CloudWalk extends far beyond the capital. We’ve had the privilege of witnessing and supporting the company’s fast expansion and technological advancements. Under the visionary leadership of Luis Silva, CloudWalk is on track to achieve even greater market share gains in Brazil and become a dominant player in the industry. The company’s relentless focus on product innovation and operational efficiency has positioned it for continued success.
The upcoming launch of JIM in the U.S. market underscores the company’s forward-thinking approach and commitment to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the payments industry. With a clear vision and a strong foundation, CloudWalk is well-positioned to seize new opportunities and expand its global influence. We are proud to stand alongside Luis and the CloudWalk team as they continue to lead the transformation of the payments landscape.
Cloudwalk is what we call a long-term compounder. It has achieved a lot already, but it has just started.
