Arcus

Arcus is a payments platform operating as Arcus F.I., S.A. de C.V., Institución de Fondos de Pago Electrónico, an electronic payment funds institution authorized, regulated and supervised by Mexico's Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV) and Banco de México under the Fintech Law (Ley para Regular las Instituciones de Tecnología Financiera). The company provides payments-as-a-service infrastructure that lets other businesses launch and offer payment solutions, with a direct connection to Mexico's real-time payments system, SPEI.

The product set covers sending and receiving real-time interbank transfers 24/7 with immediate CEP confirmations, instant creation and management of interbank CLABE accounts for individuals and legal entities, and payments addressed by CLABE, beneficiary card number or, via Banco de México's Dimo service, by mobile phone number. Clients operate through a web API and a dashboard that supports reporting, account statements, payment execution, end-to-end traceability of funds, real-time notifications and a sandbox environment for initial integration. The platform states PCI DSS certification and includes reconciliation. Arcus F.I. is part of the group of companies whose share capital is held solely by Mastercard.

Founding story

Founders Edrizio De La Cruz (Founder/CEO), Juan Maldonado (co-founder, COO/CPO) and Iñigo Rumayor launched the company in 2013 through Y Combinator's Summer 2013 batch. Prior to Arcus, Maldonado ran Michael Bloomberg's financial empowerment center in New York City, and Rumayor had founded Regalii, a cross-border bill payment platform, where he served in roles including CRO and COO.

Business model

Arcus supplies payment infrastructure to businesses on a platform basis (payments-as-a-service), giving client companies access to Mexican real-time payment rails, CLABE issuance and Dimo mobile-number payments through APIs and a dashboard rather than serving end consumers directly. The company publishes a schedule of costs and commissions for its services.

The company charges clients for payment services according to a published costs and commissions schedule.

Traction

Founder profiles state the company grew to serve over 200 clients and processes billions of dollars annually, with clients including BBVA, Santander, Walmart, 7-Eleven and Rappi; Y Combinator lists a team size of 100.

Latest developments

Arcus F.I. operates in Mexico under Mastercard, offering SPEI and Dimo-based real-time payments, CLABE issuance and dashboard/API operations, with user support handled through a specialized user attention unit (UNE) headed by Alejandro Paz Muñozcano.