SoftBank, Amazon, Accel invest $108 million in banking platform Pismo

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian banking and payments tech platform Pismo raised $108 million in an investment round led by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, Amazon.com Inc and global venture capital firm Accel, it announced on Tuesday.

According to Pismo, which was founded in 2016, its second funding round is aimed at fueling the company's global expansion and accelerating the development of banking technologies.

Brazilian stock exchange operator B3, Falabella Ventures, PruVen and existing investors Redpoint eventures and Headline also joined the round, Pismo said, without disclosing its valuation.

"Pismo is now ready for a new phase of growth. On the back of this funding round, we will build further on the momentum and scale we already have in Latin America, and accelerate international expansion," Pismo Chief Executive and co-founder Ricardo Josua said in a statement. Pismo said its cloud-native platform for financial institutions hosts more than 25 million accounts and transacts more than $3 billion a month, adding that firms like Brazilian banks Itau Unibanco Holding SA and Banco BTG Pactual SA are among its customers.

The company expects to launch offices in Austin, Texas, Bristol, England, and Singapore following the funding round.

"(Pismo is) uniquely positioned to reinvent the technology behind banking, payments, fintech, and commercial transactions. The founders have great ambitions to make Pismo a truly global company," SoftBank's head of Brazil and operating partner Alex Szapiro said.

(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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