With a mission to financially connect millions of people in the U.S. and Latin America, Leap Financial is pioneering the fusion of fintech and AI to transform financial services while having a true social impact.
Leap Financial today announced a $3.5 million seed raise led by Fuel Venture Capital, with investment in the Miami-based fintech startup coming from Ascendo Venture Capital. Leap provides a seamless service that allows financial and non-financial institutions to participate in cross-border money flows, eliminating inefficiencies and helping immigrants send money home. Leap specializes in embedded remittances and embedded payments, offering AI-enhanced engagement, efficient cross-border transactions, and integrated end-to-end payment solutions.
Leap Financial combines its proprietary X-Border Payments Platform with a Native AI super agent (Lola) and its existing embedded financial banking and payment services infrastructure. Leap is the leading contender in embedded digital remittances, transforming how traditional cross-border transfers work to remove cash from the equation and leverage more secure, compliant and cost-effective digital remittances. While traditional money transmitters average 6-10% on the total cost of remittance, Leap provides remittances under 1% of the cost, leaving the difference for partners to decide the price.
“Many companies attempt to tackle remittance and fintech, but they often excel in technology while lacking the necessary financial expertise,” said Maggie Vo, Managing General Partner and Chief Investment Officer for Fuel Venture Capital. “Leap stands out with their team’s deep understanding of remittance, banking infrastructure, and compliance—knowledge that the founders have built over many years in the industry. We don’t just invest in good tech and AI, we see the future in Leap’s AI-driven approach, supported by experienced professionals who ultimately know this business inside and out.”
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“Leap was founded to help immigrants overcome disparity and change the 100-year-old ways that allow incumbents to take 10% cuts for check cashing services, 5% for simple international money transfers or drain bank accounts with shady fees from hard-working people who barely make a living,” said Lionel Carrasco, CEO and Co-Founder of Leap. “We can do better than that and still be able to make profits. Like Jeff Bezos’s famous quote, ‘Your margin is my opportunity,’ we say, ‘Your inefficiency is our opportunity.’”
The capital raised will help Leap respond to the growing demand and new customers generated by its strategic partnership with Mastercard and additional business development activity. Leap will also use new resources to acquire talent to boost its AI component, making it easy for any financial or nonfinancial services organization to employ AI agents to provide personalized services.
“As an immigrant myself, Leap’s vision to help immigrants send money back to their loved ones truly resonates with me, and I understand the unique challenges faced in this space and by immigrants from emerging markets who are trying to assist their families,” adds Vo.
Founded by Lionel Carrasco and Marcela Henao, Leap partnered with federal banks to originate remittances leveraging Mastercard and aggregators to send money to debit cards and wallets globally, removing intermediaries and creating cost efficiencies, all while enhancing anti-money laundering controls for maximum and frictionless compliance. Leap provides a white label solution that allows remitters to pay with digital methods and instantly deliver money to cards and wallets with full regulatory compliance, making the ecosystem more resilient to bad actors.
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