The archive · Money & Fintech · Product decision · 2020–2026
Treinta's bet: free ledger wins LatAm's informal shops; 5M users, $63M, reverse pivot
Barcelona-born founders digitize LatAm's paper-ledger shops with a free Android app; 5M+ users, $63M raised, then a reverse pivot to payments and software.
Treinta
What the business is
Treinta is a free, offline-capable Android app for Latin American microbusinesses: shops manage inventory, sales, expenses, credit and supplier invoices in a digital ledger, then add payments via its own low-cost card reader.
Starting capital：US$63M raised since the August 2020 launch, including a US$46M Series A in April 2022 with PayU, Prosus, Liontree, Ethos VC, Ten13 and Enea Capital plus earlier backers Luxor Capital, Goodwater, Soma, Commerce Ventures and FJ Labs.
How it started
Two Barcelona-born consultants, Lluís Cañadell and Man Hei Lou, moved to Bogotá in 2020 and launched Treinta after seeing how many of Latin America's microbusinesses ran entirely on paper and pencil; the company entered Y Combinator as it scaled.
What happened
Treinta grew mainly by word of mouth among Android users and raised $63M, reaching ~350 employees and launching a marketplace that generated about $3M. As venture capital tightened, the founders reverse-pivoted: they closed the marketplace, cut marketing spending, and refocused on software plus payments — launching a low-cost card reader (COP$120,000, promo COP$85,000, 2.99% per sale) in July 2022 because 95% of platform transactions were still cash.
How it ended up
Still running and expanding: 1.8M+ active users across 18 countries per the 2025 Startup Colombia directory, a team of 100+ across LatAm, and a public target of 2.5M active users as Treinta pushes financial-inclusion products.
Background
Treinta is a free Android app that digitalizes Latin America's microbusinesses: shops record sales and expenses, manage inventory and online orders, and track supplier invoices in a mobile ledger that works offline. The bet was that millions of informal, cash-based shops would adopt a free management tool, and that the resulting data and trust would later be monetized through payments, credit and software.
Founded in Bogotá in August 2020 by two Barcelona-born consultants, Lluís Cañadell and Man Hei Lou, Treinta grew mainly by word of mouth among Android users and joined Y Combinator. By mid-2022 it reported more than 5 million users in the region — about one million in Colombia — and had raised US$63M, capped by a US$46M Series A in April 2022 led by PayU and Prosus alongside Liontree, Ethos VC, Ten13 and Enea Capital.
Hypergrowth brought costs: at its peak Treinta had ~350 employees and spent about $2M on marketing to acquire a million users, and a marketplace venture generated ~$3M before the founders shut it down. In 2022, with capital tightening, they reverse-pivoted to software plus payments, launching a low-cost card reader at COP$120,000 (promo COP$85,000, 2.99% fee per sale). By September 2025 the Startup Colombia directory listed 1.8M+ active users across 18 countries.
What has to be true
- The bet is explicit and testable: free acquisition of informal shops first, monetization via payments and credit second, instead of charging for software.
- Traction is specific and dated: 5M+ users by July 2022, $63M raised, then 1.8M+ active users in 18 countries in 2025.
- It documents the classic LatAm fintech sequence: digitize the cash economy, then sell financial rails to the businesses you now understand.
- The 2022 reverse pivot — closing a working marketplace to refocus on software — is a rare, transferable product decision.
- Founder honesty about VC incentives ($2M marketing to show growth) makes the tradeoffs concrete.
What can be applied
Free tools acquire the informal economy incumbents ignore, but hypergrowth can outrun product-market fit: Treinta closed the heavy marketplace, kept the software and sold payments on the ledger.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02 Treinta is still running and scaling: the Startup Colombia directory (2025-09-16) reports 1.8M+ active users across 18 countries and a public goal of 2.5M, with a 100+ person team in Colombia and other LatAm countries. The company has expanded from the ledger to payments and financial-inclusion products; in a March 2026 Growth Rockstar interview, CEO Lluís Cañadell described the deliberate move from hypergrowth — 350 employees, a closed marketplace, $2M marketing spend — back to software and monetization. No newer funding round was found in this pass.
Sources
- Fintech Treinta nabs $46 Million Series A
- Fintech para pymes Treinta ingresa al mercado de los datáfonos de bajo costo en Colombia
- Del hipercrecimiento a cambiar el modelo de negocio | Lluís Cañadell (cofundador de Treinta)
- Treinta — Startup Colombia
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe what you are building, and see who is betting on the same thing.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card