Kushki Review

Kushki is a Latin American payments company founded by Ecuadorians Aron Schwarzkopf and Sebastián Castro. It began as an online payment gateway and now calls itself the region's first non-bank regional acquirer. In October 2023 it announced regulatory approval to acquire card payments in Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia, with principal Visa and Mastercard membership in those four countries. It also serves merchants in Ecuador. It sells to large online merchants and to payment service providers (PSPs): card and alternative-method collection through an API, hosted checkout and payment links, payouts, and card-present terminals in Mexico and, since a May 2026 launch, Chile. Pricing is quoted per account. The general terms set a default minimum of USD 1,000 a month in fees, and the only rate card we found is the one its Chilean operator publishes on its regulatory-compliance page. As of October 2026 that card shows 2.0%–2.95% for credit, 1.0%–2.0% for debit and 2.90%–3.00% for international cards, plus VAT, with a USD 15 chargeback fee. Contracts run indefinitely and either side can end them on 30 days' notice, but Kushki can hold reserves and change fees on 30 days' notice. In March 2026 Chile's financial regulator, the CMF, fined the Chilean operator UF 300 for late regulatory reporting and for not reporting an October 2024 outage. There is almost no public merchant review base to judge service by.

Estimated annual cost at three realistic processing volumes, using Kushki’s published online rate plus monthly fees. Real costs vary with average transaction size, chargeback rate, and any negotiated terms.

What Kushki is

Kushki is a payments company that grew up in Ecuador and now operates across Latin America. Its name means money in Kichwa, an Indigenous language of Ecuador. It was started by Aron Schwarzkopf, now CEO, and Sebastián Castro, now president. TechCrunch's 2022 funding report and the company itself give 2017 as its founding year. Kushki's own blog dates its story to "New York, 2017". Bloomberg Línea's 2022 unicorn report gives both years: it says the company was founded in 2016, and also that the founders developed the idea in Ecuador in 2016 and formally founded it in New York in 2017. La Tercera (2026) says 2016, and The Fintech Times wrote in October 2023 of "seven years since its founding". We use 2017, the year the company itself gives. Kushki lists offices in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Santiago, Bogotá, Lima, Quito and Miami. Its Chile country manager said in August 2026 that it employs about 500 people across the region.

The company is venture-backed. It raised an USD 8 million Series A in 2020 and an USD 86 million Series B in 2021 at a USD 600 million valuation. In June 2022 it added a USD 100 million extension at a USD 1.5 billion valuation, which made it Ecuador's first unicorn. Investors named in those rounds include Kaszek, SoftBank, DILA Capital, Clocktower and Magma Partners. None is reported as a controlling owner. Kushki bought Billpocket, a Mexican card-terminal company, in 2022. Mexico is its biggest market. In September 2026, Mexican business press reported, from interviews with Kushki's new Mexico head, that Mexico accounts for about 40% of its payment volume and that it serves more than 400,000 active merchants across Latin America. Those are company figures we could not check independently.

Why we list Kushki as a platform and acquirer

Kushki holds the merchant agreement itself. Its terms say a merchant contracts with the Kushki subsidiary in each country where it processes, and that subsidiary can act as the acquirer. In October 2023 Kushki announced approval from regulators in Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia to operate as a non-bank merchant acquirer, with primary Visa and Mastercard membership in each. In Chile we confirmed this on the regulator's own record. Kushki Operadora S.A. was set up in May 2022 and registered with the CMF as a payment card operator in June 2022, and the CMF calls it an Operador de Tarjetas de Pago under its supervision. In Colombia, Kushki Colombia S.A. appears on the financial superintendency's register of non-supervised acquirers (RANV), with a registration date of 19 February 2026; that is a registration, not a supervised licence. In Mexico, Kushki said in March 2023, in sponsored content in El Financiero, that it had begun registering with the national banking regulator as an acquirer. We found no regulator register entry for Mexico or Peru, so for those two countries the approvals rest on Kushki's own announcement. Kushki also sells a gateway model that routes to a merchant's existing acquirers, and it serves Ecuador, where it has not announced acquiring approval. Its core business is acquiring, so we type it as a platform and acquirer rather than a gateway or payment facilitator.

What it costs

Kushki does not publish a price list for most of its markets. Its pricing page says it charges a fixed processing fee plus a fee that depends on the payment method, priced according to the merchant's industry, and it sends visitors to sales. The one exception is Chile, where Kushki Operadora S.A. publishes a rate schedule on its compliance page. As seen in October 2026, it lists:

• Credit cards: 2.0%–2.95% merchant discount rate, plus VAT.
• Debit cards: 1.0%–2.0%, plus VAT.
• International cards: 2.90%–3.00%, plus VAT.
• Chargebacks: USD 15 each. Refunds: USD 1 each. USD amounts are converted at the Central Bank of Chile's observed dollar rate.
• Outside Chile: rates are quoted per account. Ask for every fee in writing, including the dispute-handling fee, which the terms say varies by country.

The bigger cost question for most businesses is the minimum. The general terms set a Minimum Transactional Monthly fee floor equivalent to USD 1,000 in local currency, unless your contract says otherwise. If the fees you generate fall short, Kushki bills the difference. On the Chilean credit-card range, USD 1,000 in fees means roughly USD 34,000 to USD 50,000 a month in card volume before VAT, so this is a provider for businesses already processing at scale. Kushki says it charges its fee on transactions that are authorised, rejected or declined, as agreed with the client. It can change fees on 30 days' notice, or with effect from notice when a court or authority decision, or a change in its terms with card networks and other payment partners, drives the change. Unless agreed otherwise, any fixed-amount fees rise each January with local inflation. Merchants on the aggregator model can be billed for card-network fines caused by their own conduct, and when a network investigates a merchant, Kushki adds a charge of 10% of the fine under investigation, whether or not the fine is finally imposed.

How it works

Onboarding is sales-led and aimed at companies. In Chile, Kushki's operations manual says it signs only legal entities, which must provide tax records, company documents, a bank certificate and a beneficial-ownership declaration. Once approved, a merchant integrates through the API, a JavaScript library, the hosted Kajita checkout, a redirect payment button or e-commerce plugins, and gets a dedicated contact for integration. Payment methods vary by country but include cards, bank transfers and cash payments through networks of collection points. PSPs can create and manage sub-merchants in a hierarchy in the console. Kushki also sells payouts by bank transfer, cash-out and Visa Direct push-to-card. Card-present payments are available in Mexico and Chile. In Chile, Kushki launched white-label terminals in May 2026 that PSPs and software firms brand as their own, starting with a pilot at one retailer. In September 2026 it said it would launch an omnichannel terminal, Kushki One, across Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru that month.

Payouts and reserves

On the aggregator model, Kushki collects funds and pays them out net of fees on a daily or weekly schedule set in your contract. Its help centre also mentions fortnightly payouts, although the Chilean operations manual says that option was dropped there in 2023. Card settlement runs 48 business hours after the cut-off in Chile, Colombia and Peru, and 29 business hours in Ecuador. Cash and transfer payments take 24 to 72 business hours depending on country and frequency. The help centre warns that funds can land the day after the scheduled date because of banks and other outside factors. On the gateway model, money settles straight to the merchant's own account. The terms let Kushki deduct fees, chargebacks, refunds, taxes and fines before paying out. If it sees a risk trigger such as a breach, high chargebacks or a change in business activity, it can change payout frequency, suspend the account or require a reserve sized by its risk team, possibly as a percentage of volume. Reserves are released once the risk has passed, your obligations are settled and a set period has run from the transactions or from termination: 120 days in most countries, 180 days in Mexico, or 540 business days where the card networks require it. The terms state a separate chargeback and fraud liability window in business days: 120 business days in most countries, 180 in Mexico and 540 for some merchant categories and deferred-delivery sales such as travel.

Contract terms

Kushki's general Terms and Conditions, last updated 30 April 2025, apply alongside a signed commercial agreement, which prevails where the two differ. The contract has no fixed term, and either side can end it on 30 calendar days' notice. Kushki can end it immediately when a card network or regulator requires it, when it concludes there are reputational, legal or compliance risks, or when it finds unauthorised activity; either side can also end it for a breach not cured within 10 business days of notice. A merchant that does not accept a fee increase, or an update to the terms, can leave without liability. Merchants are liable for chargebacks and fraud by default, and Kushki does not, as a rule, refund its fee on charged-back transactions. If a merchant stops using its account and stops responding for more than six months without ending the contract, Kushki can treat the contract as ended and deduct an administration fee of 2.5% a month on funds left in the account. Each contract is governed by the law of the country of the Kushki company you signed with.

Regulation and legal matters

On 2 March 2026, Chile's Financial Market Commission (CMF) fined Kushki Operadora S.A. 300 Unidades de Fomento in Resolución Exenta 2517, which it announced on 19 March. The CMF found that between 15 January 2024 and 5 June 2025 the company filed required regulatory reports late or with errors. It also found that Kushki did not report an operational incident on 8 October 2024, when an Amazon Web Services outage interrupted its Visa and Mastercard processing. Kushki argued that the outage was limited and intermittent and caused no losses for merchants. The CMF noted no prior sanctions against the company in the previous five years. The resolution could be challenged, and we found no report of an appeal.

Separately, La Tercera reported in February 2026 that Chile's state lottery operator, Polla Chilena de Beneficencia, had filed a criminal complaint in a Santiago court alleging money laundering. The complaint names the legal representatives of six payment companies that process payments for online casinos, including a legal representative of Kushki. It is part of the lottery's wider legal campaign against online casinos. Kushki told La Tercera it had not been formally notified, and that it operates as a payment technology infrastructure provider in compliance with current regulations. The complaint names individuals rather than the company, and we found no charge or ruling, so we do not list it as an action against Kushki.

Reputation

Kushki's standing rests on its licences, its investors and its growth more than on customer reviews. La Tercera reported in August 2026, alongside market-share data from Chile's competition authority, that Kushki's share of online card acquiring in Chile, measured by number of transactions, rose from under 5% in 2023 to 20%–30% in 2025, making it the third-largest online acquirer there. Its Chile country manager said the Chilean business turned a profit for the first time in 2025, a company figure we could not check. Kushki serves many merchants indirectly through PSPs, so few end merchants know its name. We found no Trustpilot, BBB or software-directory profile with meaningful merchant reviews. A Spanish-language complaints site carries consumer complaints about unrecognised charges, but we could not load it to check them. We therefore have little independent evidence on support quality. Kushki publishes its support channels: a help centre, email, chat, an account executive and, in Chile, a phone line from 8am to 8pm (per its 2023 Chilean operations manual).

Who should use Kushki

Kushki makes most sense for a large online merchant, marketplace, subscription business or PSP that processes in several of Mexico, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Ecuador and wants local acquiring under one contract and one integration. Its own acquiring registrations and the network memberships it reports are a real advantage there. It also serves regulated gaming and other high-risk categories that many providers turn away. It is not built for small businesses: the default USD 1,000 monthly fee minimum, quote-only pricing and sales-led onboarding put it out of reach for a shop doing a few thousand dollars a month. Before signing, get the rate for each country and payment method in writing. Also confirm the monthly minimum, payout frequency and any reserve in the commercial agreement, and ask how the 10% surcharge on network fines would apply to your business.