Latin American Delivery Unicorn Rappi Launches Crypto Payments Pilot

Rappi, a Colombian delivery app with operations in nine Latin American countries, has begun a crypto payments pilot program in Mexico.

• Teaming with crypto payments provider BitPay and Mexican crypto exchange Bitso, Rappi said Monday it will allow customers to convert crypto into credits that can then be used to complete purchases on the company’s platform.
• "We are studying the crypto world with interest and believe that the future is the intersection of the crypto world with non-crypto companies," Rappi President Sebastian Mejia said in the announcement, adding that the pilot is a first step "to continue incorporating the crypto world into Rappi."
• Rappi already provides financial services in Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Peru, and is trying to win regulatory approval for operating as a digital bank in Colombia at some point this year, reported Reuters late in 2021.
• In July the company raised $500 million at a valuation of $5.25 billion in a Series F funding round, giving the company unicorn status.