Pomelo Leverages AWS and AI to Drive Fintech Innovation in Latin America

The fintech industry in Mexico continues to grow, with more than 600 startups operating by 2024 and a 20% annual increase in transaction volume, according to the Mexican Fintech Association. Pomelo, a card issuing company, has achieved AI-generated over 40% of its platform code thanks to the integration of AWS services.

Diego Burgos, CTO of Pomelo, explained to IT Sitio how the company is implementing its strategy from the design of its cloud-native architecture. “When our developers push code, an automated agent reviews tests, logs, and security, and generates a pull request with improvements. Today, between 35% and 50% of code is generated by artificial intelligence, depending on the application ,” Burgos noted, highlighting the tangible impact on productivity and efficiency.

Pomelo, which operates in eight Latin American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, and now in some Central American nations such as Costa Rica and Panama, offers credit, debit, prepaid, and crypto cards connected to Visa and Mastercard in a completely digital way. “ We were one of the first players in the region to connect to Mastercard in an end-to-end cloud-based way. We don’t have anything physically connected, which allows us to scale both in terms of volume and traceability,” explained the CTO.

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In Mexico, Pomelo connected its services to Prosa and issues both Visa and Mastercard cards. Burgos explained that, although he couldn’t name specific clients due to confidentiality issues, the brand’s presence is evident: “You always turn the card over and it says ‘issued by Pomelo,’ which I think is an interesting point to consider.”

Adopting AWS is key to addressing the challenges of scalability and regulation. “AWS allows us to scale in volume and achieve 99.995% uptime, which is essential for operating in such a highly regulated industry,” Burgos said.

Additionally, AWS’s flexibility and specialized support make it easy to resolve complex issues, such as those related to specific cloud services, specific programming languages, or specific regions. “When we have a problem with a service, we can quickly contact AWS and resolve it, making us a strategic partner for our growth ,” he added.

How does AWS play with Pomelo?

The integration of artificial intelligence with AWS’s Bedrock is transforming Pomelo’s development processes. Initially, engineers used local copilots to generate code, but the implementation of Bedrock allowed them to automate and standardize multiple stages of the development pipeline.

“The automated agent reviews tests, generates logs, assesses security, and finally produces a pull request that is sent to the developer. This allows engineers to focus their time on complex business rules, increasing team productivity by 20 to 30%,” said the CTO.

However, the automation and standardization of tests and logs also improve the platform’s stability, increasing reliability and reducing human error. “Our time-to-market is increasingly faster, and the platform is more stable because these tests and logs allow for better traceability,” Burgos noted.

However, the implementation wasn’t without challenges. For example, the launch of Bedrock and other AWS services forces Pomelo to stay up-to-date to avoid wasting engineering resources. ” Bedrock is constantly releasing new versions and features. This is a benefit, but also a challenge: we must keep up with technological evolution without impacting the productivity of our engineers ,” explained the CTO.

In terms of metrics, Pomelo focuses primarily on code delivery and the proportion of synthetically generated code, as well as the uptime of its applications. “ Our uptime exceeds 99.995% on some products, which reflects the stability and reliability we can offer our customers ,” Burgos added.

Pomelo’s experience provides key lessons for other companies in the sector. Burgos emphasized the importance of strategically aligning with AWS and finding a balance between adopting the latest technologies and optimizing development time: “It’s essential to be aligned with AWS in terms of architecture and leverage its services progressively. Artificial intelligence requires investment and risk, but I no longer have any doubt that it offers a tangible return in the medium term.”

The relationship between Pomelo and AWS is projected for the long term, as the company seeks to remain at the forefront of infrastructure, architecture, and new artificial intelligence services to sustain its growth and consolidate its presence in Latin America. ” We need to maintain a close relationship with AWS, continue scaling, and adopt new tools that give us speed and precision in our systems,” Burgos concluded.

Pomelo’s case reflects broader trends in the fintech industry in Mexico and Latin America. Technological fragmentation, a need to comply with strict regulations, and the pressure to innovate make the cloud and artificial intelligence strategic allies for financial companies. According to a McKinsey study , companies that integrate AI into their software development processes can increase efficiency by 20 to 40%, a range that coincides with the results reported by Pomelo.

For the fintech industry, scalability is a constant challenge, as traditional banks and issuers struggle to modernize their legacy technology, while digital startups like Pomelo can leverage cloud architectures and open APIs to expand rapidly and offer consistent services across multiple markets. The implementation of artificial intelligence, test automation, and synthetic code generation allows these companies to accelerate their development and improve the customer experience, reducing errors and increasing the stability of their platforms.

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(Featured image by Jim Chen via Unsplash)

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First published in IT.SITIO. A third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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