Utah-based payments infrastructure provider Galileo, which was acquired by SoFi in in 2020, announced the opening of its Latin American headquarters and innovation center in Mexico City.
The move comes after its incorporation of the company’s Mexican subsidiary and the first opening of its first office outside the U.S. in Mexico City last year. The company’s expansion will allow it to serve strategic markets across Latin America “in-market and in-language”, according to a news release. More specifically, Galileo’s Latin American headquarters and innovation center is in the Torre Reforma building in Mexico City.
The company’s Mexico City office will hire about 25 new employees across its engineering, payment technology, product innovation, client success and operations teams. It has capacity for about 55 employees.
Galileo’s digital payments platform enables checking- and savings account-like functionality via its open APIs, providing companies with a way to create consumer and B2B financial services. The company’s offerings are accessible via mobile, desktop and a physical debit card.
“As Galileo and México’s fintech industry continues to grow, we recognized the need to expand our physical presence and in-country support to provide world-class solutions for our clients,” Tory Jackson, Head of Business Development and Strategy, Latin America for Galileo, said in a statement. “Galileo was founded with a focus on financial inclusion, and we are proud to partner with innovators to advance financial inclusion and digital transformation in Latin America. Since last year’s first office opening, Mexico City has proven to be an amazing home for Galileo, and this new office solidifies our commitment to supporting the fintech industry in México and LATAM.”
The company’s CEO and co-founder Clay Wilkes spoke with FinLedger last year about he sees “probably more opportunity” for Galileo’s services in Latin America and Asia-Pacific than in the United States.
Galileo provides the underlying infrastructure, and serves as the operating system, for fintech companies such as Chime, Robinhood, TransferWise, Varo, Revolut, Monzo and of course, SoFi. Via its APIs, companies can launch debit cards, credit cards, savings products, money transfer and a number of financial products more quickly. In general, Galileo’s APIs are used widely throughout the neobank, payments, gig economy, investing and SaaS market segments.
In an interview with FinLedger in February, Fin VC Founder Logan Allin discussed 2021 projections for the b2b enterprise SaaS market. Allin said the B2B-oriented companies with recurring revenue and less transaction reliance, like Affirm — which is far more B2B than B2C — and SoFi because of its Galileo acquisition will be very advantaged in 2021 compared to consumer-oriented fintech models.