Building a payment network for the Millions of Latinos without one

The client

As a second-generation US Latino, Miguel Alecio grew up translating for his family and community. Whether it was for hospitals, the DMV, or banks, Miguel experienced first-hand how the systems we interact with daily weren’t built for Latinos.

Professionally, he has worked at firms like Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO) and Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR). While at Palantir Technologies, Miguel ran operations in Spanish-speaking South America, building products for some of the largest companies in the region. He’s been an entrepreneur from a young age, including starting companies in healthcare company and hospitality.

The problem

Despite significant advancements in fintech, many Latinos remain unbanked (12% US and 40% in LATAM) and cannot utilize traditional payment networks such as Visa and Mastercard. This means that Latinos disproportionately utilize alternative financial services such as check cashing or payday loans, costing them time and money to access, spend and send the money they’ve worked for.

While there are several reasons this may be the case, common setbacks for consumers include high fees, language barriers, and distrust of financial institutions. As a result, Latinos remain largely invisible to the financial system, leaving them unable to access additional products such as mortgages and investment accounts.

Latinos also live globally, often sending money to their families in Latin America. Despite the volume sent each year ($121B US dollars from the US to LATAM in 2022), the process is expensive and time-consuming to carry out, and it often requires both the sender and recipient to have bank accounts.

The solution

The initial MVP focused on allowing Plata to become the on-ramp for capital typically left in cash. The MVP also sought to reduce the time and money Latinos spend accessing, spending, and sending their money today.

PLATA’s MVP boasts a Spanish-first, user-friendly app experience that includes:

• Non-SSN ID options like ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Number) and passport
• Peer-to-peer money transfer
• Physical and virtual debit cards
• Funding deposit via mobile check deposit and a host of other features.

The results

element14 was a critical development partner in realizing PLATA’s vision for the MVP. The e14 team integrated successfully with our design team to bring the product mockups to life. Additionally, the e14 team helped in evaluating different vendors and in standing up the technology architecture, allowing Plata to beta test internally and with customers. element14 programmed both the front-end and the back-end product, all while ensuring the Plata platform was built in a highly secure cloud environment based on encryption to protect its customers’ data.

Miguel Alecio comments on the MVP build and element14:

“element14’s way of working made them feel like they were part of my team: from joining our standups, and slack, to pushing our thinking on the product, the e14 team was by our side every day as we built the MVP.

For me, this was the most important requirement for this type of project. I don't know many vendors who make that effort to integrate into your team the way the e14 team did. The e14 team wasn’t shy and challenged my thinking on a few product features that made the end product that much better. I’m thankful for all of the hard work the team put in, and cannot recommend them highly enough. I am very happy with the work and final product.”