Talino has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding, marking a strategic shift from a venture studio model to a full-scale fintech foundry focused on cross-border financial infrastructure.
The round was led by Chemonics International, with participation from Mt Sinai Capital and Gulf Blvd. The funding positions Talino to expand its role in building the underlying systems that power fintech services, particularly between the U.S. and emerging markets like the Philippines.
Building an API-first layer for cross-border payments
Talino’s core strategy centers on developing an API-first connectivity layer designed to replace fragmented legacy financial systems with a more unified and interoperable infrastructure.
The platform targets key bottlenecks in cross-border fintech, including regulatory complexity across multiple jurisdictions. It will also target technical limitations from outdated financial systems and liquidity constraints that delay transaction settlement.
By abstracting these challenges, Talino aims to enable fintech startups and enterprises to launch compliant financial products faster, reducing development timelines that typically take months.
Existing fintech portfolio and enterprise integrations
Talino already supports several fintech platforms operating in high-demand corridors:
- BayaniPay – focuses on zero-fee embedded remittances
- Higala – enables instant payments for rural banks and microfinance institutions
- Bahai Deals – facilitates cross-border real estate financing
Beyond startups, Talino also provides embedded financial solutions to enterprise clients such as Seafood City and SM Development Corporation.
This mix of fintech and enterprise use cases highlights growing demand for embedded finance solutions across industries.
Leveraging open standards and regulatory access
A key part of Talino’s competitive positioning lies in its technical and regulatory stack. The platform integrates Mojaloop, an open-source system backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and supports ISO 20022 standards for real-time payments.
Talino also holds Money Service Business licenses in the U.S. and Canada, enabling a “regulatory-as-a-service” model that allows partners to operate without securing their own licenses in each market.
This combination of infrastructure and compliance could reduce friction for fintech firms expanding into Southeast Asia.
Partnerships with PDAX and Stripe’s Bridge expand payment capabilities
Talino is further strengthening its ecosystem through partnerships with Philippine Digital Asset Exchange (PDAX) and Bridge.
The collaboration focuses on enabling:
- Faster cross-border transactions
- Stablecoin-powered remittances
- Improved liquidity and local settlement in the Philippines
These capabilities are particularly relevant for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), where remittances remain a critical economic driver and a key fintech battleground.
Why Talino’s fintech foundry model matters
Talino’s transition reflects a broader shift in fintech—from consumer-facing apps to infrastructure-driven platforms that power multiple services behind the scenes.
For the Philippines, this approach could:
- Improve access to financial services in underserved areas
- Lower costs of remittances and cross-border transfers
- Accelerate digital transformation in banking and payments
As competition intensifies in the cross-border payments space, Talino’s focus on interoperability, compliance, and speed positions it as a potential infrastructure layer for the next wave of fintech growth in emerging markets.
