The investment reinforces the existing partnership between Visa and Conductor, as well as the companies’ shared vision for driving adoption of digital payments across e-commerce and mobile commerce in Brazil. Backed by Riverwood Capital since 2014, Conductor has become a key technology-processing platform for retailers, banks, and other companies in Brazil looking to issue different type of cards and digitize their payments, resulting in better engagement and increased loyalty amongst consumers.

Visa and Conductor’s areas of focus and product expansion plans include developing issuer-focused solutions for tokenizing payments via mobile wallets, improving access to Visa APIs, expanding the usage of push payments with Visa Direct, and increasing acceptance of digital payments among small and medium businesses, among other initiatives.

“We are proud that Conductor marks Visa’s first investment in Brazil. Conductor’s extensive experience as a technology processing platform—with solutions that include mobile and digital payment account software—makes them an ideal partner for building a strong payments ecosystem,” said Fernando Teles, country manager of Visa Brazil. “Our partnership is key for the development of new products and solutions that will shape the payments industry in Brazil,” he concluded.

”Over the past four years, Conductor has invested aggressively in its technology platform in order to facilitate payments for different type of clients, from some of the largest issuers across financial institutions and retailers to the rapidly emerging fintech ecosystem in Brazil. We have grown four times in size since 2014, and are excited to welcome Visa’s strategic investment as we evolve in our next phase of growth, including our expanding digital payments ecosystem,” said Antonio Soares, Conductor’s CEO.

"Through our investment in Conductor, we are reinforcing our commitment to significantly invest in attractive fintechs and key digital enablers from Latin America and the Caribbean, given the thriving community we are seeing throughout the region," said Ruben Salazar, Senior Vice President of Products and Innovation for Visa Latin America & Caribbean. "We believe Conductor’s merchant and bank relationships will allow them to develop payment solutions for underserved consumers in Brazil and across Latin America, and we are excited to work together on these initiatives,” he added.

Visa’s investment in Conductor is part of a broader global strategy to open up the Visa ecosystem and support a broad range of new partners who are helping to redefine and enhance the commerce experience for millions of consumers globally. Previously, Visa has made investments in Paidy, Behalf, YellowPepper, solarisBank, Marqeta, Klarna, Square and Stripe, among others. Visa’s support of fintechs goes well beyond investments. Earlier this month, Visa announced it would expand its fast-track onboarding program to fintechs from Latin American and the Caribbean in December 2018 to provide them with the ability to more rapidly onboard to VisaNet, Visa’s global network.