The archive · Money & Fintech · Strategic decision · 2021–2025
Iniciador's Pix Automático bet: R$32M for licensed recurring-payment rails
Brazilian infra startup Iniciador bets Pix Automático and biometric Pix need licensed initiator rails; R$32M Valor-led round lands at launch.
Iniciador
What the business is
Backend infrastructure connecting companies to Banco Central APIs so they can offer Pix Automático, Pix por Biometria and Pix Inteligente, holding its own payment-institution (IP) and payment-initiator (ITP) licences.
Starting capital：R$1.2M pre-seed at founding (2021) from strategic investors including Edson Santos and Rappi co-founder Andres Bilbao.
How it started
Marcelo Martins, an entrepreneur who had already founded and sold a company, watched Brazil's Central Bank turn payments into an open, regulated infrastructure race. He founded Iniciador in 2021 with a R$1.2M round from payments insiders, betting that as Pix reached nearly the whole banked population, institutions launching each new Pix modality would need someone to run the licensed connection layer for them.
What happened
Iniciador's moment arrived as the Central Bank shipped new modalities: Pix Inteligente in April 2024, Pix por Biometria in February 2025 and Pix Automático, the recurring-payment scheme for subscriptions and bills, in June 2025. The startup signed iFood, Stone and Nomad, and by August 2025 claimed 60% of the institutions already offering Pix Automático. It quadrupled its client base during 2025 and raised R$32M (about US$6M) in a round led by Valor Capital with big_bets, Alter, Actyus and Norte Ventures, partly to hold the prudential capital its Central Bank licences require.
How it ended up
Still independent and expanding: the R$32M round funds product work, hiring and regulatory capital while Brazil prepares Pix parcelado (installments), which Iniciador says it will support as soon as the Central Bank launches it.
Background
Iniciador is a bet that Brazil's open-finance build-out would make third-party payment-initiation infrastructure a business before the volumes arrived. Marcelo Martins, who had previously founded and sold a company, started it in 2021 with a R$1.2M round from payments insiders, positioning it as the licensed layer that connects companies to Banco Central APIs for each new Pix modality.
The company holds both payment-institution (IP) and payment-initiator (ITP) licences, so clients such as iFood, Stone and Nomad can either plug into Iniciador's regulated rails or bring their own licences and use only its technology. Revenue is success-based: a few cents per completed transaction flowing over its platform, a model that grows with client volumes rather than seats sold.
The Central Bank supplied the triggers: Pix Inteligente launched in April 2024, Pix por Biometria in February 2025 and Pix Automático, which lets merchants charge recurring subscription payments through Pix, in June 2025. By the time the August 2025 round was announced, Iniciador claimed 60% of the institutions offering Pix Automático and said its client base had quadrupled since January.
The R$32M round, led by Valor Capital with big_bets, Alter, Actyus and Norte Ventures, is earmarked for product, hiring and the prudential capital the Central Bank requires of licensees. Brazil's open finance already records over four billion calls per week, and with Pix parcelado next on the regulator's roadmap, Iniciador's bet is that each new modality adds another layer of recurring volume to the rails it already runs.
What has to be true
- Pix is used by nearly the entire banked population, so every new modality the Central Bank ships instantly has a giant addressable base that needs infrastructure, not evangelism.
- Holding both IP and ITP licences removes the biggest barrier for clients, who can be live with a new modality without waiting months for their own regulatory approval.
- A per-successful-transaction fee aligns Iniciador with its clients' volumes and lets it monetize whichever payment players win each modality.
- Early movers matter when a rail is new: a claimed 60% share of institutions offering Pix Automático in its first months is the kind of position that compounds as volumes grow.
What can be applied
When a central bank commits to opening a payments rail, the scarce asset is licensed plumbing, not another consumer app: own the connection layer and charge per successful transaction, whoever wins.
Aftermath
As of August 22, 2025, Iniciador is live and expanding: it reported quadrupling its client base since January 2025 and counts iFood, Stone and Nomad among customers, with a claimed 60% share of institutions offering Pix Automático and 50% of Pix por Biometria. The R$32M round led by Valor Capital goes to product, hiring and the prudential capital tied to its licences, and it will support Pix parcelado when the Central Bank launches it. Revenue is undisclosed; growth now depends on how fast recurring, biometric and installment Pix displace card rails.
Sources
- A rodada do Iniciador, uma infra do PIX que mostra o potencial do Open Finance
- Actyus participa en la ronda de $6M de la brasileña Iniciador
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