Efy Finance raises $5 million to expand Latin America payments

By Amara Osei

Panama-based Efy Finance raised $5 million in a seed round led by Tether, with Astor Management AG and angel investors participating. Efy said in a Thursday statement that the capital will expand its banking infrastructure, payment corridors and stablecoin-enabled settlement services across Latin America. The round gives the company funding to extend a platform already serving individual and business customers.

The financing backs a company that changed direction after establishing itself in trade finance. Efy was founded in 2019 in Barranquilla, Colombia, and initially provided receivables financing to mid-market importers and exporters. In 2024, it shifted its focus to cross-border payments and settlement, which can reflect demand for faster and cheaper international payments.

The pivot also changed how Efy presents itself. The Panama-based company now describes its core business as cross-border payments and settlement for Latin America, rather than receivables lending to importers and exporters.

Why is Efy focused on treasury flows?

Andrés Tobón, co-founder and CEO of Efy, said most companies describe the stablecoin opportunity in Latin America as a remittance market. He said Efy can also handle treasury money moving by finance teams of companies operating across borders. “A payment that takes three days and passes through four intermediaries needs a different settlement rail, not another app.”

Tobón’s distinction positions Efy in corporate treasury and settlement, rather than only consumer remittances. The company’s USDT rails, cross-border settlement services and plans for banking and foreign-exchange links address that broader use case. For corporate users, Tobón’s three-day, four-intermediator example sets a practical benchmark for the corridor and settlement expansion.

What scale has Efy reached?

Efy said it has processed more than $2.5 billion in cumulative transaction volume. The company also serves more than 25,000 active individual and business accounts. Together, those figures provide the operating base for the seed-funded expansion.

Its service set spans conventional banking tools and stablecoin access. Efy offers multi-currency accounts, Visa cards and over-the-counter services. The company also supports USDT on- and off-ramps, alongside cross-border payment and settlement services.

Efy’s five core markets are Colombia, Mexico, Bolivia, El Salvador and Panama. The company said it reaches beyond those markets through its own entities, regulated partners and regional payment networks. Its settlement network covers 17 countries.

How will Efy use the $5 million?

Efy said the capital will expand its banking links and build payment and foreign-exchange corridors in Colombia, Mexico, Bolivia and Central America. The company also plans to strengthen its compliance, treasury and liquidity operations.

Its broader roadmap includes:

• A unified application programming interface for fintechs.
• USD accounts and Visa cards.
• Stronger custody and transaction-monitoring capabilities.

The roadmap combines customer-facing products with infrastructure and control functions for cross-border settlement. Efy already lists multi-currency accounts, Visa cards and USDT access among its services, while its plans call for additional banking, foreign-exchange and compliance capacity. Custody and transaction monitoring are also part of the expansion.

What do the investors say?

Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, said: “Latin America is one of the world’s leading markets for blockchain innovation.” He added that Tether is backing the infrastructure linking stablecoins with institutions across the region. Ardoino framed the investment around infrastructure for institutional stablecoin use.

Orbit Ventures invested in Efy at the pre-seed stage. Oscar Ramos Moreno, managing general partner at Orbit Ventures, said the founders had built the compliance and operational foundations needed for stablecoin-based services. Ramos Moreno’s assessment links the company’s earlier operating build-out to its current stablecoin settlement push.

For Efy, the next phase centers on execution across banking, foreign exchange, compliance, treasury, liquidity, custody and transaction monitoring. The practical test is whether those investments shorten the three-day, four-intermediator payment chain Tobón described. Execution also determines whether Efy can use its 17-country settlement network to support the institutional stablecoin infrastructure Ardoino described.