Cumbuca is a Y Combinator-backed fintech that acts as the first regulatory proxy for Brazil’s Open Finance and Pix ecosystem, enabling international and domestic firms to launch financial products and access local banking infrastructure without holding their own license. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Cumbuca co-founder and CEO Daniel Ruhman to learn more about Cumbuca.
Daniel Ruhman’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Ruhman said:
“I’m a self-taught developer who released my first iPhone app at 14. I dropped out of a Computer Engineering degree in Brazil after briefly studying Cognitive Sciences at UC Berkeley to become a full-time entrepreneur at 21.”
“I co-founded the original iteration of Cumbuca with my business partners Bruno Cury and Pedro Castilho, starting with what we called an ‘Uber for cleaning professionals,’ which evolved into a community bank for unregulated workers. The company then went through Y Combinator and pivoted to a bill-splitting service using Pix, before pivoting the company again. When we applied for and received our payment institution license from Brazil’s Central Bank at 24, I became the youngest controller of a regulated entity in Brazil. That experience – both the difficulty of obtaining the license and working with existing providers – showed us the gap in the market that became what Cumbuca is today.”
“I’m also one of the founders of INIT, the National Open Finance Association of Brazil. I’ve been obsessed with payments and fintech infrastructure since I was young. My father worked in banks, so I was basically born inside one.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Ruhman shared:
“The idea came from years of painful firsthand experience. When we were running Cumbuca as a consumer bill-splitting app, we scaled to over a million accounts. That growth exposed a brutal reality: our product was constantly limited not by what we could build, but by what our infrastructure partners allowed us to build.”
“Every time our customers had problems, the solution was often out of our hands. We’d face outages we couldn’t fix, features we couldn’t ship, and a constant feeling that we were building with one hand tied behind our back. We realized that in Brazil, if you want to build great financial products, you need direct access to the regulated environment — not someone else’s abstraction layer on top of it.”
“We had already obtained one of the first Payment Initiation licenses in Brazil — we were the fourth ever issued. Going through that process ourselves showed us how difficult market access is, especially for international companies. Brazil treats financial services as a matter of national security, so foreign ownership of regulated entities requires significantly more approvals. After we pivoted, we started seeing international firms wanting to enter Brazil but facing the same wall we’d overcome. Their options were terrible: wait years for their own license, or surrender operational control to third-party providers with all the limitations we knew too well.”
“We realized we could offer a third way using our license and be the provider we always wanted to use! We do that by letting companies build under our license with the same flexibility they’d have if they held their own, while we handle compliance. Not another middleman adding friction, but the thinnest possible layer between them and the regulated environment.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Ruhman reflected:
“For me, it was the last pivot: we managed to re-employ everyone who worked on the Cumbuca B2C project, found our new venture, and became profitable for the first time in seven years, all in just a couple of months. That was really touching for me.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Ruhman explained:
“Cumbuca is the first proxy for Brazil’s regulated payments ecosystem. We give international fintech firms direct access to the Brazilian Central Bank under our payment initiation license. Instead of waiting years for their own license or working through restrictive third-party providers, clients build their own infrastructure with direct Central Bank API access. They get license-level control – they own their infrastructure, their operational data, and resolve issues without intermediaries – while we handle license compliance.”
“We support direct access to Pix and Open Finance. Companies can build exactly what they need for the Brazilian market and, when they eventually secure their own license, they can seamlessly migrate by simply swapping certificates. The infrastructure they built under our license comes with them. We also provide access to a partnership network including developers, legal firms, banking providers, and Open Finance enablers to support clients across every aspect of delivering financial products in Brazil.”
“This month, Cumbuca collaborated with W Fintechs to release a new report called ‘A New Planet Called Pix‘ about how Brazil’s Pix has rapidly reshaped the country into a massive, regulatorily clear instant-payments market (about $557 billion monthly, reaching 91% of adults) with standardized access for new entrants, making Brazil a prime scaling target for global fintech and payments firms, especially as Open Finance expands opportunities across payments and data.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Ruhman acknowledged:
“The regulatory environment has tightened significantly over the past year. Brazil’s Central Bank has raised capital and compliance requirements dramatically – what used to require R$1 million now costs 10x-15x that. Adding new services to existing licenses has become far more complex. This is actually a turning point. For the past two decades, the Central Bank prioritized fostering innovation with relatively low barriers. Now the emphasis has shifted to financial stability and regulatory compliance. Many smaller fintechs will struggle to meet these new requirements.”
“For us, this shift validates our model. We built compliance into our operations from day one rather than trying to retrofit it later. Our team includes some of Brazil’s leading regulatory experts:
Gustavo Lino, former President of INIT; Ana Luisa Monteiro, our CFO who specializes in Brazilian financial markets; Nic Marcondes, who architected Brazil’s no-redirect payment flow.”
“The regulatory tightening creates opportunities for companies that can help others remain compliant. The next phase of growth in Brazilian fintech won’t come from speed alone, it’ll come from operational discipline and the ability to build within the regulatory framework rather than around it.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Ruhman noted:
“Honestly, we’re more about revolution than evolution. This is the third version of Cumbuca – we’ve gone from cleaning services to community banking to bill-splitting to regulatory proxy. Each pivot was a complete reimagining of what we could build. That said, the DNA of those previous versions is still evident in everything we do today. The infrastructure challenges we solved building consumer products, the regulatory expertise we gained securing and operating our license, the understanding of what Brazilian users actually need – all of that feeds into how we support our clients now. We didn’t gradually improve one product; we pivoted each time to address significant market demand, but we kept the lessons. With every pivot, we started the tech from scratch bringing over the lessons we learned – this was key, as it enabled us to launch our proxy with the exact problems we were solving in mind – it needed to be stateless, horizontally scalable, handle large volumes of transactions and data including temporary spikes, and all of that with no downtime and ensuring full compliance. And that’s what we built.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Ruhman cited:
“Becoming the fourth payment initiation license issued in Brazil was foundational – it proved we could navigate the regulatory complexity ourselves and showed us the gap in the market. Going through Y Combinator validated the team quality, and securing Lightspeed’s first investment in Brazil demonstrated investor confidence in what we’re building. Most recently, we launched publicly on December 3rd, 2025, having already reached profitability in stealth mode, just a few months after refocusing the business to B2B, which shows strong market demand for our premium approach.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Ruhman highlighted:
“We’ve supported global payment orchestrators and Brazilian credit ecosystem services in launching and scaling in Brazil. I can’t share too many details right now – these partnerships are very new – but watch this space. As more companies go live and start talking about their Brazilian operations, you’ll see Cumbuca’s approach validated in the market.”
Funding/Revenue
Are you able to discuss funding and/or revenue metrics? Ruhman revealed:
“We’re backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners – this was their first investment in Brazil – and Supera Capital. We’re also a Y Combinator company and count them as investors. We reached profitability just a few months after refocusing the company to B2B.”
Total Addressable Market (TAM)
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Ruhman assessed:
“Open Finance is so new and the market is still maturing and growing very, very fast. Payment, credit, PFM, and other markets that use Open Finance in Brazil are booming, so our market-sizing estimates are constantly evolving. Payment initiation is the most common way to use Pix, so when we’re looking holistically at the available market opportunity, we prioritise Pix adoption first and foremost. The Brazilian market has over 200m people, with 66% using apps to access financial products, and we’re ideally positioned to help international firms tap into this rapidly expanding market.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Ruhman affirmed:
“We’re the first and currently only regulatory proxy approved by the Brazilian Central Bank. The alternatives aren’t other proxies – they’re either securing your own license, which takes 18+ months with significant capital requirements and foreign ownership complications, or using Open Finance-as-a-Service providers that restrict autonomy.”
“We were the fourth payment initiation license ever issued in Brazil, which means we’ve been in this market since Open Finance launched. We’re not just compliant – we actively help shape regulations. I’m one of the founders of INIT, Brazil’s National Open Finance Association, so we’re involved in the policy conversations that define how this ecosystem evolves. That positioning matters because, unlike OFaaS providers, we give clients direct Central Bank API access so they can build their own infrastructure with the same flexibility they’d have with their own license. They own their data, resolve issues directly, and aren’t dependent on our technical support team.”
“We’ve assembled Brazil’s leading Open Finance and regulatory minds to back this up. Gustavo”
“Lino, our Head of Policy, Legal and Compliance, was President of INIT and sits on the Open Finance Association board. Nic Marcondes architected Brazil’s no-redirect payment flow and has been a key contributor to the Open Finance framework for over five years. Ana Luisa Monteiro, our CFO, brings deep expertise in Brazilian financial markets. This isn’t just about having smart people – it’s about having the people who built the systems we’re helping clients access. When clients eventually secure their own license, they can migrate seamlessly by swapping certificates. The infrastructure they built is theirs.”
“We’ve also lived on both sides of this problem. We built consumer fintech products, wrestled with securing licenses, worked with BaaS providers, and understood what Brazilian consumers and businesses want. Our own frustrations drove us to create Cumbuca.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Ruhman emphasized:
“Our ambition is to become Brazil’s largest payment initiation and open finance data provider by the end of 2026. We’re focused on expanding our client base across international firms entering Brazil, continuing to build out our team of regulatory and Open Finance experts, and staying ahead of the market as new capabilities like Pix credit and Pix Automático roll out. The regulatory environment is tightening, which creates opportunities for well-positioned, compliant players like us. We want to be the default choice for any international company serious about building in Brazil’s fintech ecosystem.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Ruhman concluded:
“Payment processing is becoming a utility – fast, transparent, nearly costless. The economics are shifting. With Pix Automático rolling out in 2026, the traditional revenue models around recurring payments are being dismantled. Success won’t come from the transaction itself anymore; it’ll come from what surrounds it: credit, data insights, FX, and user experience. That’s the direction Brazil is heading, and it’ll set expectations globally for what modern payments really mean.”
