Jelou scales its transactional AI on WhatsApp with a $ US$10 million Series A round

Jelou, the Ecuadorian startup founded in 2017 by Luis Loaiza and Alberto Vera, announced the close of a $ US$10 million Series A round that will enable it to scale Brain, its artificial intelligence platform focused on carrying out real-world transactions within WhatsApp.

With this new investment, the company has raised a total of $ US$13 million since its founding, following a previous seed round of $ US$3 million. The Series A was led by Wellington Access Ventures, with participation from Krealo, Credicorp’s corporate venture capital division, and Collide Capital. In its early stages, Jelou was backed by Act One Ventures and Arca Continental Ventures.

The company currently operates in more than 13 countries, works with more than 500 companies, and processes more than $ US$100 million in financial transactions through its technology.

From conversation to action: the problem Jelou aims to solve

In Latin America, messaging has become the primary channel for interaction between businesses and customers. Yet critical actions such as payments, identity verification, credit applications, and signatures are usually handled outside these environments, on separate platforms that create friction, drive drop-offs, and increase operating costs.

This gap between conversation and execution directly affects conversion. Industry studies show that each redirect away from the conversational channel can reduce completion rates by more than 30%, especially in complex, multi-step processes.

Jelou starts with this structural problem and rethinks the role of chat, turning it into an environment where people not only have conversations but also complete entire transactions.

What Brain is and how it works within WhatsApp

Brain is the platform developed by Jelou that enables companies and developers to create AI agents capable of connecting to internal systems and carrying out transactions directly within a conversation.

With this technology, agents can interact with customers over WhatsApp, collect missing information, verify identities, activate payments, and automate financial workflows using real-time system data.

The solution includes a web environment with more than 3,000 integrations, as well as a conversation management layer that enables teams to oversee high-volume interactions while securely handling sensitive processes such as payments, credit applications, and digital signatures.

“When customers are ready to act, processes often break down,” explained Luis Loaiza, CEO and founder of Jelou. “They’re taken out of the conversation, put on hold, or asked to repeat information. We built Brain so the entire transaction can be completed securely within the chat.”

Why WhatsApp has become the dominant interface in the region

In Latin America, WhatsApp has become the primary interface for business-to-customer communication. However, many AI tools are still focused solely on answering questions, without carrying out real transactions.

At the same time, companies face growing pressure to reduce costs, improve conversion, and adopt AI that integrates with their existing systems without compromising security or regulatory compliance.

Jelou’s approach prioritizes execution within the channel, enabling agents to move processes forward directly in the conversation rather than fragmenting them across multiple platforms. This capability is especially relevant in a region characterized by diverse regulations, legacy systems, and a heterogeneous payments infrastructure.

Industries served and use cases

Jelou works with more than 500 enterprise customers in sectors such as banking, retail, logistics, and consumer goods. Its platform processes more than $ US$100 million in financial transactions, demonstrating its adoption for high-value transactions subject to stringent regulatory requirements.

Key use cases include:

• Financial institutions that let their customers apply for credit, verify their identity, and sign documents without leaving WhatsApp.
• Retailers that process payments and complete purchases directly in the chat, without redirects.
• Logistics companies that coordinate deliveries, validate addresses, and collect outstanding payments in a single message thread.

By keeping the entire workflow in one channel, companies significantly reduce drop-off rates and improve operational efficiency.

Toward an operating system for conversational businesses

“Jelou understands that the future of AI lies in channels integrated into everyday work,” said Jackson Cummings, director at Wellington Access Ventures. “They’re building a platform that unifies voice AI, chat, payments, and identity in a single layer, positioning themselves as pioneers in transactional AI for messaging in Latin America.”

The company plans to expand Brain into a full operating system for conversational businesses, enabling users to create, deploy, and manage production-ready applications directly from a message.

Its vision is to turn WhatsApp into the central operating platform for businesses in the region—a place not only for conversations, but also for carrying out critical processes.

Why this approach scales better in Latin America

Jelou’s growth reflects a regional trend toward conversational commerce and operations powered by AI agents. Automation only delivers real value when it is deeply integrated with existing infrastructure and designed for production from the outset.

In Latin America, where companies face multiple regulatory frameworks, legacy systems, and fragmented payment channels, the ability to deploy secure, scalable, compliant AI within familiar channels becomes a competitive advantage.

With WhatsApp penetration exceeding 90% in many markets, the region offers an ideal environment for this model. Jelou is betting that the next generation of business applications will be built within the channels where customers are already active.

The $ US$10 million round will enable the company to scale its operations across the Americas, strengthen its product, and deepen integrations with banking and payment systems in different countries.