Brazilian FinTech Dock Acquires Mexican Card Processor Cacao

Brazilian FinTech infrastructure firm Dock has closed an acquisition deal for the Mexican card processing startup Cacao for undisclosed terms, according to a recent press release.

Cacao is Dock’s first purchase outside of Brazil and its third acquisition overall. The deal widens Dock’s regional reach and drives its mission of positioning itself as the central FinTech services provider in Latin America. As part of the tie-up, Cacao will rebrand as Dock.

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“The two companies share significant values and a core mission to enable their clients to democratize, through technology, access to the financial system for the millions of unbanked and underbanked people in Latin America,” said Antonio Soares, CEO of Dock.

Founded in 2017 in Mexico City, Cacao has so far released more than four million cards across its card management and credit card platforms.

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As the only Brazilian company offering card issuing, Dock — with the acquisition of Cacao — gets acquiring and banking-as-a-service (BaaS) capabilities on a single, integrated platform. The tie-up also brings 50 new clients on board — including Mexican FinTech Albo, unicorn payment firm Clip, U.K. payments network Rapyd, Bnext, Lanapay, Oyster, Kapital, Billpocket, Jefa and Tribal.

Headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil, Dock’s cloud-based platform handles over 40 million active accounts, processing 3.6 billion transactions each year totaling $50 billion annually, according to the company’s website.

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Less than 50% of Mexico’s 130 million people have a bank account, putting the prospective market for digital banking infrastructure at $2.9 billion, with estimated growth forecasts of 34% by 2026, according to data from Americas Market Intelligence.

Dock, formerly called Conductor Technology, raised $170 million in 2020 and is backed by early investors Riverwood Capital and Visa, as well as Temasek, Viking Global Investors and Sunley House Capital