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Western Hemisphere

hiSofi Raises $1M and Returns to Uruguay to Build Its Regional AI and Data Science Hub

The Editor

The Editor

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hiSofi CEO Tatiana Pomar and Leonardo Paladino
hiSofi CEO Tatiana Pomar and Leonardo Paladino

hiSofi, a fintech that automates debt collection through conversational messaging rather than call centers, has raised US$1 million to establish a regional artificial intelligence and data science hub in Uruguay, six years after relocating its operations to Brazil in 2020. The round was led by SaaSholic, a Brazilian fund specialized in B2B software with more than 40 portfolio companies, with US$250,000 co-invested by Uruguay's National Research and Innovation Agency (ANII) through its matching funds program.

The company was co-founded by CEO Tatiana Pomar and Leonardo Paladino on the premise that collections in Latin America could work fundamentally differently. Instead of outsourcing to third-party call centers, hiSofi's platform analyzes debtor behavior to determine the best channel, timing, and approach, then reaches people through WhatsApp, RCS, email, and landing pages, with self-service portals where debtors can negotiate payment plans directly. "If I send you a WhatsApp or an RCS, you'll probably see it. If I call you, you probably won't answer," Pomar said. In 2025 the platform managed more than 44 million debts, closed over 451,000 payment agreements, and recovered US$61 million for clients including iFood, Natura, and Credicard. The company operates across Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Argentina with a team of 28, and will hire in engineering, data science, and product development for the new Uruguayan hub.

Market Context

Conditions in the region favor a collections business. Moody's has warned of deteriorating credit quality across Latin America in 2026 after roughly three years of aggressive credit expansion outpaced borrowers' capacity to repay. Household delinquency in Argentina has reached its highest level in more than two decades, with corporate delinquency among small and medium businesses hitting 3.3% by May 2026, while consumer debt in Brazil has climbed as digital banks expanded unsecured lending. Persistent inflation, elevated interest rates, and weak growth have compounded the pressure across most major banking systems in the region.

The move back to Uruguay reflects a deliberate policy effort. ANII's co-investment program, part of the Uruguay Innovation Hub initiative, matches private capital into early-stage startups in priority areas including advanced digital technologies, requiring prior due diligence from a registered private investor before the state commits. Pomar cites the quality of Uruguayan technical talent and the country's established technology ecosystem, along with the practical advantage of managing Spanish-speaking regional operations from a Spanish-speaking base rather than from Brazil.

The Signal

"If I send you a WhatsApp or an RCS, you'll probably see it. If I call you, you probably won't answer." — Tatiana Pomar, co-founder and CEO, hiSofi

Regional Relevance

For the United States: The collections industry in the US remains heavily dependent on call centers and is governed by strict rules under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which constrains how and when debtors may be contacted. hiSofi's model, in which the original brand communicates directly with the customer rather than selling or outsourcing the debt, addresses a problem American companies also face: aggressive third-party collection damages the customer relationship the lender spent money to acquire. For US fintech investors watching Latin America, the company is also a test of whether messaging-first collections translates to markets with different channel habits, since WhatsApp's dominance in the region has no direct US equivalent.

For Uruguay: hiSofi's return is a measurable outcome for a state program designed to reverse exactly this kind of departure. The country has spent recent years positioning itself as a technology hub, and the ANII co-investment structure exists to make staying, or coming back, financially rational for founders who might otherwise base operations in Brazil or Mexico. The reasoning Pomar gives, technical talent quality plus the language fit for managing Spanish-speaking markets, is a specific competitive argument other small economies in the region could replicate, and it follows other recent Uruguayan cases demonstrating that companies can build regionally while keeping engineering at home.

The Other Side

Is US$1 million enough to build a regional AI hub? The sum is modest for the stated ambition, and a quarter of it comes from a public agency rather than private capital; hiSofi is hiring across engineering, data science, and product simultaneously with 28 people currently on staff, and the credibility of the hub depends on whether the company can attract senior technical talent in a small market where the same profiles are being recruited by larger, better-funded employers.

Does making collections easier serve the debtor or only the creditor? The pitch is a better experience, self-service negotiation and no harassing calls, but the business exists to recover money from people who cannot currently pay, and messaging channels reach individuals in far more moments of their day than a landline ever did. As Moody's documents rising household delinquency across the region, the question of what constitutes appropriate contact frequency through personal messaging apps is a consumer protection issue that regulation in most Latin American markets has not yet addressed clearly.

Can hiSofi hold its position as the category attracts larger players? Collections technology is drawing significant investment across Latin America, and the company's advantage rests on behavioral data accumulated across 44 million debts rather than on proprietary technology that competitors cannot build; larger fintechs and the banks themselves have both the data and the customer relationships to bring similar capabilities in-house.

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