Tumoni lands $2.3 million to bank Central American migrants and their families back home

Remittances, a major source of income for many emerging market households, often exclude – or exploit – underbanked and unbanked individuals. Flows between the US and Central America amount to $45 billion a year.

“At the current rate of innovation, it will take two decades to reach the UN’s goal of reducing the cost of remittances to less than 3% in this corridor,” said Tumoni’s Paolo Delaunay, which aims to make remittances free for both senders and receivers.

The transfers, says Tumoni, create a gateway to financial inclusion. The San Francisco-based-based fintech offers digital bank accounts to facilitate cross-border transfers, mobile top-ups and bill payments. Tumoni has a waitlist of more than 50,000 potential customers.

Cross-border services.

The seed capital injection, led by Slauson & Co. and Counterview Capital, will support Tumoni’s launch in Nicaragua and the US, where many migrants face barriers to opening bank accounts due to their immigration status. Next up: Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, where Tumoni hopes to bridge the digital financial services gap.

“By creating a closed-loop system, they’re not just trimming fees – they’re fundamentally restructuring how money moves across borders,” said Charlie Graham-Brown of Seedstars International Ventures, which joined the round alongside NuMundo Ventures, Hatcher, Plug and Play and angel investors