Welcome to Season 4 of The J Curve đïž
This week, I sit down with Gustavo Mapeli, co-founder and CEO of Kanastra â one of the fastest-growing fintech infrastructure companies in Latin America. Gustavo started out building a traditional asset manager focused on private credit and wealth outside of Brazilâs core markets. But after feeling the pain of operating in a fragmented, manual, and outdated system, he made the bold decision to build the infrastructure he wished existed â and Kanastra was born.
Today, Kanastra powers over R$13B in assets across 150+ credit and securitization facilities â and has raised capital from top investors like Kaszek and QED.
Hereâs what we cover:
âą How Brazil became fertile ground for fintech infra â Why regulation, wealth decentralization, and embedded finance created the perfect storm.
âą The contrarian decision to go multi-product from day one â And why Gustavo believes they had no other choice.
âą How Kanastra is winning in a concentrated, low-tech market â Tactics for building trust, reputation, and distribution in a system built on inertia.
âą Hiring and culture in high-performance teams â Why Gustavo believes the best cultures are the most exclusive.
âą Founding with conviction â The story of Gustavo and his co-founderâs 15-year friendship, and how theyâve built what he calls an âunbreakableâ partnership.
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