Mendel bets big LatAm enterprises want a 'Ramp' built for their tax rules; $35M Series B

YC-backed Mendel sells software-first corporate spend management to LatAm enterprises, went cash-flow positive, and raised a $35M Series B.

Mendel

它在赌什么That large LatAm enterprises will replace manual spend work and SAP Concur with software-first platform tuned to local tax codes, invoicing and multi-currency flows.在扩

做的是什么生意

A corporate spend management platform for Latin American enterprises, combining expense management, bill payments and corporate travel in one system, with SaaS fees as the primary revenue model.

启动资金：About $60 million in equity and $50 million in credit facilities: a $15M Series A plus $20M debt in December 2021, and a $35M Series B in March 2025 led by Base10 Partners with PayPal Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Infinity Ventures, Industry Ventures and Hi.vc.

起因

Alan Karpovsky and Alejandro Zecler, both serial founders who had already built and sold startups, started Mendel in early 2021 after the company joined Y Combinator's Winter 2021 cohort. Helena Polyblank (CPO) and Gonzalo Castiglione (CTO) came on as co-founders. Their thesis: Latin America's CFOs still ran expenses, vendor payments and travel on spreadsheets and legacy tools, while global software ignored the region's country-specific tax codes, invoicing requirements and multi-currency workflows.

经过

Mendel closed a $15 million Series A and $20 million in debt in December 2021, then scaled to about 500 customers including Mercado Libre, FEMSA, Adecco and McDonald's. Its revenue mix leans on recurring SaaS fees (over 50%) plus interchange and a take rate on bill pay. ARR grew almost 2.5x year over year with gross margins above 75%, and the company reached cash-flow positivity in December 2024. In March 2025 it raised a $35 million Series B led by Base10 Partners with PayPal Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst joining, and planned expansion into Chile, Colombia and Peru in 2025 and Brazil in 2026.

新闻TechCrunch: 'Ramp for LatAm enterprises'新闻PayPal Ventures: $35M Series B

还没有结局，它还在跑。

背景

Mendel was founded in early 2021 by Alan Karpovsky and Alejandro Zecler, serial founders who joined Y Combinator's Winter 2021 cohort, with Helena Polyblank and Gonzalo Castiglione later joining as co-founders. Their bet: Latin America's largest enterprises still ran expenses, vendor payments and business travel on spreadsheets and legacy tools, and global software companies were not going to build for the region's country-specific tax codes, invoicing requirements and multi-currency workflows.

The product integrates expense management, bill payments and corporate travel in one platform with deep ERP integrations, multi-entity and multi-credit-line support — the founders describe it as 'SAP Concur and AMEX having a child', or a Ramp for Latin American enterprises. Unlike rivals that leaned on interchange and lending, Mendel is software-first: over 50% of revenue comes from recurring SaaS fees.

The approach worked on paper and in cash: ARR grew almost 2.5x year over year with gross margins above 75%, the company reached cash-flow positivity in December 2024, and by early 2025 it served about 500 customers including Mercado Libre, FEMSA, Adecco and McDonald's from hubs in Mexico and Argentina. In March 2025 Mendel raised a $35 million Series B led by Base10 Partners with PayPal Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst, and set out to expand to Chile, Colombia, Peru and Brazil.

这件事要成立，得有什么

LatAm enterprises had real, painful spend problems but global tools like SAP Concur were built for US workflows, ignoring local tax codes, invoicing and multi-currency rules.
Focusing on large, complex enterprises — not SMBs — let Mendel charge recurring SaaS fees instead of competing on interchange and lending economics.
Starting in Mexico, the largest Spanish-speaking market, gave it a home base and reference customers before expanding across the region.
Cash-flow positivity in December 2024 de-risked the Series B: Base10 cited capital efficiency in a sector where rivals struggle with unit economics.

可借鉴之处

Localization is a moat: US spend playbooks fail on LatAm tax codes and invoicing rules, so Mendel won as the software-first, enterprise-grade option nobody else would build.

后续进展

As of March 2025, Mendel is scaling with about 80 employees and 500 enterprise customers across Mexico and Argentina, cash-flow positive since December 2024. The $35 million Series B funds AI-powered spend management, its corporate travel module Mendel Viajes, and expansion to Chile, Colombia and Peru in 2025 with Brazil targeted for 2026. Valuation and hard revenue figures were not disclosed; profitability was expected by late 2025, and the open question is whether the AI layer and travel module keep enterprise win rates high as rivals like Clara and Jeeves chase the same region.

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