CloudWalk is a financial technology company that operates an AI-first platform and blockchain infrastructure, offering digital banking, credit, and payment solutions such as InfinitePay for merchants and JIM.com for consumers. Pulse 2.0 interviewed CloudWalk Chief Growth Officer Ricardo Cici to learn more.
Ricardo Cici’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Cici said:
I’m the Chief Growth Officer at CloudWalk. I run global expansion, go-to-market, and revenue growth across JIM.com in the U.S. and InfinitePay in Brazil.
Before CloudWalk, I founded a payments reconciliation company – built it, scaled it, then sold it to CloudWalk. That’s how I ended up at the company today. I basically sold my company to my future employer, which is either very smart or very lazy, depending on how you look at it, but I view it as strategic.
My whole career has been about taking complex financial infrastructure and turning it into something a street vendor can use on their phone. At CloudWalk, that means building the growth engine behind products that serve over 6 million micro and small businesses around the world.
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Cici shared:
CloudWalk was founded in 2013 with a simple bet: payments infrastructure was broken and could be rebuilt from scratch using blockchain and machine learning.
The real turning point was 2018. We were in Silicon Valley pitching B2B infrastructure, and a mentor helped us see it clearly – whoever owns the customer relationship wins. We had the tech, we had the stack — why were we selling picks and shovels when we could mine the gold ourselves?
So we launched InfinitePay in 2019, found product-market fit fast, and scaled it to millions of merchants. My job today is taking that same playbook global. With JIM.com, we brought CloudWalk’s AI-native stack and instant settlement to the US, targeting the solo entrepreneurs that traditional banks love to ignore.
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Cici reflected:
Honestly? My favorite memories are when we reach milestones that once felt impossible, or when we build products from scratch and ship them to customers. Tap to Pay was one of those – I had never seen a mobile phone accepting card payments before. Then there was launching JIM.com and watching it grow from zero to tens of thousands of sellers in 12 months.
We entered the US with zero brand, zero distribution, competing against big global fintechs – and the product just worked. Seeing a barber in Miami accept his first payment through his iPhone and get the money instantly, no hardware, no wait – that moment hits differently when you helped build the product.
A funny story is that the day our AI agent stopped being a chatbot and started taking action , it created a payment-enabled website for a merchant who didn’t even ask for one. The seller thought it was a bug. It wasn’t. The AI understood the gaps that needed to be filled and automatically delivered valuable assets. That’s when I knew we were onto something real and impactful.
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Cici explained:
JIM.com is CloudWalk’s US platform – an AI-powered financial tool for micro and small sellers.
The core is simple: Tap to Pay on your phone (iOS + Android) and money in your account instantly. No hardware, no card readers, no “we’ll settle in 2-3 business days.” You sell, you get paid. Done.
But the real magic is the AI Business Agent. It started as a smart assistant and evolved into basically a co-founder that doesn’t need equity. It can:
- Build you a payment-enabled website (without you asking)
- Manage your online sales
- Analyze your transactions and tell you what’s working
- Actually execute marketing actions – not just suggest them
The key difference is that our AI is plugged directly into the payment rail. It doesn’t just see your data – it can act on it. That’s the gap between a dashboard and an operating system.
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector recently? Cici acknowledged:
Two big ones.
First, the US payments market has thousands of companies that all claim to be “the simplest way to get paid.” Standing out when everyone’s saying the same thing is… fun. Our answer was to stop competing on payments and start competing on speed and intelligence. Anyone can process a transaction. Not everyone can pay you instantly, tell you why your Tuesday sales are 30% higher than Monday’s, and automatically adjust your marketing for it.
Second, serving microbusinesses profitably. A solo food truck operator who works only weekends generates maybe $2K/month in volume. Traditional fintechs can’t afford to serve them, and acquiring these customers is expensive. We can, because AI lets us deliver personalized insights to millions of merchants at near-zero marginal cost. The economics only works if intelligence is native, not bolted on.
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Cici noted:
The short version is from infrastructure to intelligence to autonomy.
We started building payments rails with blockchain. Then we layered in machine learning for fraud, credit scoring, and transaction routing. Now we’re at the stage where our systems don’t just process payments — they learn from them and take action.
Think of it this way: V1 was “here’s a tool.” V2 was “here’s a tool that gives you advice. V3, which is where we are now, is “here’s a tool that runs part of your business while you focus on what you’re actually good at.
JIM.com is V3. An AI co-pilot that lives inside your financial flows and actually does stuff. Not a chatbot that says “have you considered optimizing your pricing?” — it’s an agent that optimizes your pricing.
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Cici cited:
Some of our most significant milestones reflect both our scale and our long-term vision for microbusinesses.
We have grown to serve more than 6 million active merchants globally and now process billions of dollars in payments annually. Within just six years of launching InfinitePay, we reached US$1.2 billion in annualized revenue, demonstrating strong product-market fit and sustained growth. We also expanded beyond Brazil into the U.S. market with JIM.com, marking an important step in our international strategy.
On the product side, we evolved our AI Business Agent into a full operating system for microbusinesses, moving beyond payments to power day-to-day operations. Each of these milestones underscores our commitment to pairing infrastructure scale with AI-driven efficiency to help entrepreneurs run smarter, more resilient businesses.
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Cici highlighted:
My favorite is for sure our first one, DK, a salad truck owner in PA who started using JIM for Tap to Pay. That was the first customer: In his spare time between serving meals, he found our ads, downloaded the JIM.com app, completed all the verification in his food truck, and started accepting card payments with his phone right away. That was a truly magical moment – when we realized that “Ok, we are online. Let’s play this game!”
Funding/Revenue
Are you able to discuss funding and/or revenue metrics? Cici revealed:
CloudWalk serves over 6 million active merchants, processes billions of dollars in payments annually, and has reached US$1.2 billion in annualized revenue in just six years.
We continue to invest heavily in AI research, infrastructure, and global expansion.
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Cici assessed:
We are focused on the global micro and small business segment. In the U.S. alone, there are over 30 million micro/small businesses, many of them solo entrepreneurs.
Globally, that number exceeds 400 million micro and small enterprises. But the real TAM isn’t payment processing volume – it’s becoming the operating system for these businesses. Payments, credit, financial visibility, AI-powered growth tools, all in one place. The merchant who uses you for payments today uses you for everything tomorrow. That’s the game.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Cici affirmed:
“Three main differentiators:
- AI-native, not AI-sprinkled. Our intelligence is built into the payments infrastructure from day one. We didn’t buy a chatbot and slap it on a dashboard.
- Instant money. You sell, you get paid. Not tomorrow, not in 2-3 business days, not “pending review.” Now. That changes how a microbusiness operates.
- The AI actually does things. Most fintechs give you charts. Ours creates your website, generates your payment links, and runs your marketing. It’s the difference between a weather app and an umbrella. We’re not just simplifying payments—we’re automating business operations.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals?
The short-term goal is to make JIM.com the default financial platform for solo entrepreneurs in the US. Deeper AI capabilities, distribution partnerships, and embedded credit.
The long-term goal is fully autonomous financial co-pilots. Imagine an AI that handles your invoicing, optimizes your pricing, manages your cash flow, and applies for credit when you need it – all while you focus on making great tacos or cutting hair. We’re not building a better payment terminal. We’re building the thing that makes payment terminals irrelevant.
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Cici concluded:
Here’s what keeps me up at night (in a good way). For the first time in history, a solo entrepreneur can access the same analytical power as a Fortune 500 company – not through expensive consultants or enterprise software, but through their phone.
AI is the great equalizer for small businesses. The barber doesn’t need an MBA to optimize his pricing. The food truck doesn’t need a marketing team to find new customers. The intelligence is just… there, embedded in the tools they already use.
At CloudWalk, we believe the future of fintech isn’t just digital – it’s autonomous. And that shift is going to unlock economic potential in places and people that the traditional financial system wrote off a long time ago.
That’s worth building.
