Miami fintech player Karta just locked in a hefty $140 million financing package to put more U.S.-issued credit cards into the wallets of international clients. The mix of equity and a sizable credit line is set to fuel premium consumer cards, a corporate product and an AI concierge built for people who live on planes and in airport lounges more than at home. Co-founders Orlando Espinoza and Freddy Juez are steering the expansion from Karta's Miami headquarters.
The deal combines a $15 million Series A led by Galaxy Ventures with a $125 million credit facility from Community Investment Management (CIM), giving Karta both growth equity and firepower to lend, as reported by the South Florida Business Journal. Karta says applicants can be approved in minutes without an SSN or ITIN, and that qualified customers can tap credit lines of up to $200,000. Other investors named in the coverage include Illuminate and existing backers Canary and Clocktower Ventures.
According to the company release, Karta now distributes its cards through more than 80 private banks and wealth managers and runs a 24/7 multilingual AI concierge over WhatsApp that can spin up one-time virtual cards and handle travel requests. The same release touts rapid growth, including a reported 10x expansion in 2025 and fourfold quarter-over-quarter jumps in both revenue and total payment volume in the first quarter of 2026, with an annualized TPV target of $1.2 billion. “In the last several months, we’ve seen explosive growth,” CEO Freddy Juez said in the announcement via GlobeNewswire.
What Karta Plans To Build
The fresh capital is earmarked for an elevated-tier premium consumer card, a corporate card and payments platform, and deeper capabilities for the AI concierge so it can take on more travel and spending chores for clients, according to PYMNTS. Backers on the round include Galaxy Ventures and Illuminate alongside returning investors Canary and Clocktower. Karta has also brought on industry veteran Fernando Dalceggio, previously with American Express International Dollar Cards, to help scale out distribution.
Why Miami Matters
The funding splash adds another data point to Miami's evolution into a hub for cross-border financial services startups, a pattern that local outlets have been tracking, per the South Florida Business Journal. Karta came out of stealth with a seed round last year and has framed itself as stepping into gaps left when American Express pulled back some dollar-account offerings for foreign customers, according to a client note from Gunderson Dettmer. That pitch helped Karta sign up private-banking partners and convert its early waitlist into paying users.
From here, investors and private-banking allies will be watching to see if Karta can turn that fast traction into solid, long-term underwriting performance as it introduces higher-limit cards and a full corporate offering. For Miami, the deal is one more signal that cross-border fintech is becoming a defining lane in the city's startup economy.
