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Jelou raises $10M to build AI apps that move money on WhatsApp

Monday, January 26, 2026 — 16:56:29 (UTC)

Jelou Raises $10M to Build AI Apps That Move Money on WhatsApp

After proving its platform in highly regulated banking environments across Latin America, Jelou is now bringing WhatsApp-based transactional AI to U.S. businesses and SMBs.The company has already processed more than USD 100 million in financial operations through AI agents that execute payments, open bank accounts, and underwrite credit entirely inside messaging apps.

New York, Jan. 26, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Messaging has become the primary way people communicate with businesses across the Americas, yet the actions that actually move money still happen elsewhere. Payments, identity checks, credit applications, and signatures are routinely pushed into apps, portals, or call centers, creating friction, abandonment, and operational cost. Jelou was built to close that gap by turning conversations into execution. Today, the company announced a $10 million Series A to expand Brain, its platform for building AI agents that securely execute real business and financial operations inside WhatsApp. Jelou leadership team.

The round was led by Wellington Access Ventures, with participation from Krealo, Credicorp’s corporate venture arm, and Collide Capital. Jelou has now raised $13 million in total funding, including a $3 million Seed round led by Act One Ventures and Arca Continental Ventures.

The timing reflects a broader shift in how businesses interact with customers. Conversational channels like WhatsApp have become the default interface across Latin America, yet most AI tools remain limited to answering questions rather than completing transactions. At the same time, enterprises face rising pressure to reduce operating costs, improve conversion, and deploy AI that can integrate with existing systems without introducing security or compliance risk. Jelou’s approach focuses on execution, enabling AI agents to move work forward inside the conversation instead of handing it off to fragmented tools.

Jelou’s core product, Brain, is a platform that allows businesses and developers to create and operate AI agents that connect directly to their existing systems and perform transactional operations inside chat. Through Brain, companies can deploy agents that communicate with customers over WhatsApp, collect missing information, verify identity, trigger payments, and advance financial workflows using live system data. The platform includes a web-based studio with more than 3,000 integrations for building and integrating agents, as well as a conversation management layer that allows teams to oversee high-volume interactions while securely executing workflows such as payments, credit processes, and document signing.

Brain Studio Builder by Jelou.

“When customers are most ready to act, things usually fall apart,” said Luis Loaiza, CEO and founder of 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.”

Jelou builds AI agents that enable companies to run financial operations inside conversational channels.

The company’s journey began in Ecuador in 2017, where founder Luis Loaiza and the Jelou team observed that messaging had become the dominant interface for commerce in the region, while execution remained fragmented and insecure. Drawing on more than a decade of experience building messaging and encrypted communication systems, the team set out to make chat a place where real business happens. Since then, Jelou has expanded across Latin America, processing more than $100 million in financial operations and serving over 500 business customers across more than 13 countries, including banks, retailers, and consumer goods companies.

Jelou’s traction reflects a broader trend toward conversational commerce and agent-driven operations. As AI adoption accelerates, businesses are discovering that automation only delivers value when it is tightly integrated with existing infrastructure and designed for production from day one. In regions like Latin America, where companies must operate across diverse regulations, payment rails, and systems, the ability to deploy secure, scalable AI inside familiar channels is becoming a competitive necessity.

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.”

Looking ahead, Jelou plans to expand Brain into a full operating system for conversational business, enabling companies and developers to build, deploy, and manage production-ready WhatsApp applications directly from a prompt. The company’s vision is to make WhatsApp the primary operating layer for businesses across the region, with Jelou providing the platform that powers everything built on top of it.

Media images can be found here.

About Jelou

Founded in Ecuador in 2017 by Luis Loaiza and Alberto Vera, Jelou builds AI agents that enable companies to run financial operations inside conversational channels. The company operates in more than 13 countries and serves over 500 clients across banking, retail, logistics, and consumer goods. Learn more at jelou.ai or start building in Brain OS at apps.jelou.ai/signup or follow via LinkedIn, Instagram, X or YouTube.

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Source: Company press release.

Categories: Announcement