Building out banking-as-a-service: Anabel Perez

Anabel Perez, born and raised in Venezuela, was inspired by the financial struggles she witnessed firsthand across Latin America to launch NovoPayment, a cloud-based banking-as-a-service platform, in 2007. Now, 17 years later and more than 600 million transactions processed, she is diligently working to keep the growth going.

Providing underserved communities with access to digital financial services was at the core of Perez's business when starting out. She drew upon more than 20 years of experience as the senior vice president of retail banking for the Caracas-based bank Venezolano de Crédito. The company's efforts have included collaborating with Visa in 2018 to help local banks work with Latin American businesses to move away from cash to digital payment options. 

"The world of technology is constantly evolving, so leaders need to have the flexibility to meet those changes at the drop of the hat to meet their partner's needs," Perez said. "They must also have a level of eagerness to create synergy with their partners, as they are working as partners to help better serve the consumers at hand."

Under Perez's guidance, NovoPayments secured $19 million in Series A funding in 2022. The money has been vital in supporting NovoPayment's banking-as-a-service platform, expanding the startup's market reach and growing Perez's team. 

Partnerships with financial institutions remain a big challenge for the fintech industry given that clients are reluctant to end ties to more established technology firms. Perez noted that legacy systems "hold a lot of strength and power, as well as trust, within the community."

"Banks and fintechs learn to trust each other to create synergy to fulfill the needs of the customer," she added.