Jelou raises USD $10m to scale WhatsApp AI across US

Jelou has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round to support the expansion of its WhatsApp-based transactional AI product into the US market.

The fintech startup reported that it has already processed more than $100 million in financial operations through AI agents designed to execute payments, open bank accounts, and underwrite credit within messaging applications. Currently operating across 13 countries, Jelou serves over 500 customers and maintains a presence within regulated banking environments throughout Latin America.

Wellington Access Ventures led the funding round. Krealo, the corporate venture arm of Credicorp, and Collide Capital also participated. Jelou said it has raised USD $13 million in total, including a USD $3 million seed round led by Act One Ventures and Arca Continental Ventures.

WhatsApp focus

Jelou positioned the move as a response to how businesses and consumers communicate across the Americas. It said messaging channels have grown in importance for customer interactions, while financial actions still take place in separate apps, portals, or call centres.

The company stated that traditional hand-offs introduce unnecessary steps to processes such as payments, identity verification, credit applications, and digital signatures. It linked these additional stages to increased friction, higher abandonment rates, and inflated operating costs.

In response, Jelou has developed a platform called Brain, which enables the creation of AI agents capable of executing business and financial operations directly within WhatsApp. The startup intends to utilise its new funding to scale the Brain platform across the Americas.

Product detail

Jelou described Brain as a platform for businesses and developers. It said the platform connects to a company's existing systems and runs transactional workflows inside chat.

The company stated that its agents are capable of communicating with customers via WhatsApp to collect missing information, verify identities, trigger payments, and progress financial workflows using real-time system data.

Additionally, the Brain platform features a web-based studio which, according to Jelou, offers more than 3,000 integrations to assist in the construction and implementation of these agents.

Jelou said the platform includes a conversation management layer. It said this allows teams to oversee high-volume interactions while executing workflows such as payments, credit processes, and document signing.

"When customers are most ready to act, things usually fall apart," said Luis Loaiza, CEO and Founder, Jelou. "They get redirected out of the conversation, put on hold, or asked to repeat themselves across systems. We built Brain so businesses can meet customers where they already are and complete the entire operation securely inside chat. This round allows us to scale that model across the Americas and push conversational AI beyond talk into execution."

Regional track record

Jelou started in Ecuador in 2017. The company said its founders focused on the gap between messaging-led customer interactions and fragmented execution for commerce and financial processes.

Jelou stated that it has expanded throughout Latin America, securing a client base that includes banks, retailers, and consumer goods companies. The firm noted that its platform has successfully operated within environments characterised by diverse regulations, payment rails, and technical systems.

Investors have framed the opportunity around the use of messaging as a primary interface for transactions, rather than a channel restricted to customer support and enquiries. Furthermore, Wellington Access Ventures described Jelou's product direction as a unified layer spanning several distinct functions..

"Jelou recognizes that the future of AI is centered around communication channels embedded within the everyday workflow," said Jackson Cummings, Head of Wellington Access Ventures. "They are developing a platform that integrates voice AI, chat AI, payments, and identity into a single application layer. This strategic approach positions Jelou as an early mover in bringing transactional AI to messaging in Latin America."

Next steps

Jelou has stated that it plans to develop Brain into a comprehensive operating system for conversational business, enabling companies and developers to build, deploy, and manage WhatsApp applications directly from a simple prompt.

The company views WhatsApp as a foundational operating layer for businesses across the region, with Jelou providing the essential platform required to build and run services on top of it.