The 32-year-old entrepreneur from Murcia leads one of the fastest-growing fintech companies in the Spanish-speaking market. In just two years, Kunfupay has reached €10 million in annual transactions, expanded to over 20 countries, and gained more than 2,000 users. We spoke with him about how it all began, what’s next, and what’s the hardest part of building a company at this pace.
Rubén Romero isn’t one to sit still. He studied Business Administration in Murcia and Computer Engineering in California, and before turning 30, he had already founded another startup, Carsbarter, a platform through which he sought to reinvent the used car market. He then ran an influencer marketing agency, which introduced him to the problem that Kunfupay solves today. Today, at 32, he leads Kunfupay, a payment platform using blockchain technology and artificial intelligence that processes over 10 million euros a year and operates in more than 20 countries.
You’ve gone from reinventing the car buying and selling process to managing global payments with blockchain. How did you get from one place to the other?
Ultimately, the common thread has always been the same: identifying a business model that isn’t working well and improving it with technology. With Carsbarter, my brother Juan Andrés and I saw that the classic car marketplace model—like coches.net—had run its course. So we changed it: we created a disintermediation platform where you could trade your car for another or for cash, cutting out the middleman. That’s where we learned what it takes to build something from scratch, challenge an entire industry, and move fast. Later, with the influencer marketing agency, I was on the front lines watching how content creators built massive audiences but struggled to monetize them. I saw influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers losing out on sales because their fans in Mexico or Colombia couldn’t afford to pay. That’s when the lightbulb went off.
And Kunfupay was born from that lightbulb moment?
It was born from a problem we experienced firsthand. Our influencers couldn’t sell effectively in Latin America. I thought Stripe would be enough—after all, it’s the world’s most well-known payment gateway. But no. It didn’t work well in LATAM: local payment methods weren’t available, conversion rates plummeted, and we were losing sales every day. So we did what anyone would do: look for another solution on the market. And we realized that no one was doing it right. No one was bringing together all the local payment methods from each country—PIX, Nequi, SPEI, Mercado Pago—on a single platform designed for creators. That’s when we said: if no one else is doing it, we’ll do it ourselves. And that’s how Kunfupay was born.
In two years, you’ve gone from zero to 10 million euros in annual transactions and over 2,000 users across 20 countries. How do you explain that growth?
Three things. A real problem that no one was solving well. A product that works and that people recommend. And a viral design: every payment link a creator shares on social media is a point of contact with Kunfupay. The creators have come to us on their own. We haven’t had to go out and find them.
You talk a lot about blockchain and artificial intelligence. Isn’t that too much jargon for a content creator who just wants to get paid?
It might sound like jargon, but it’s actually the opposite: it’s what makes getting paid easier, faster, and cheaper. The financial infrastructure is changing. Stablecoins allow money to be moved instantly anywhere in the world, and all modern financial companies are already adopting them. We use them behind the scenes so that money travels in minutes instead of days, but the creator doesn’t need to know any of that. They see euros, they see dollars, they see that it works.
And as for AI, it’s a must. The world is changing at a breakneck pace, and our big advantage is having been born in the midst of that change. We adapt much faster than our more established competitors, who have to transform systems that have been operating differently for years. We’ve built everything with AI from day one—the business advisor, automation, campaign optimization. Any tech company that launches today and doesn’t use AI in its day-to-day operations will fail. It’s that simple.
Your growth has caught the attention of Y Combinator, 500 Global, and other top-tier funds. What do they see in Kunfupay?
They see the product’s scalability. The market is huge—the creator economy is on track to reach $480 billion—and it’s booming. Kunfupay launched at the perfect moment, and the product’s viral growth is very attractive to any investor. We have incredible technology—blockchain, our own wallet, native AI—but let’s be honest: no one invests in technology unless it’s accompanied by very high growth. What really convinces them is that we’ve gone from zero to 10 million in two years without external funding. That’s what opens doors. In fact, we’re very likely to announce a major funding round soon.
It all sounds great, but let’s be honest: what’s the hardest part of building something like this?
The hardest part has been finding people who share the mission. You can have the best technology and the best market, but if you don’t have a team that works the way you do, that enjoys the process, the challenges, and the constant learning, you won’t get anywhere. Building a payments infrastructure in more than 20 countries is brutally complex—every country has its own regulations, its own banks, its own particularities. There are weeks when you solve a problem in Colombia and something breaks in Mexico. To handle that, you need people who aren’t just good at their jobs, but who are just as convinced as you are that this is worth it. Finding those people has been the hardest part, and when you find them, the most valuable. That said, I really enjoy all of this. Sometimes you get tired, you burn out—it’s inevitable. But after a few days of rest, I’m ready to get back to work. I guess that’s what sets an entrepreneur apart from someone who simply has an idea.
Let’s talk about the future. Where do you see Kunfupay in five years?
I always say the same thing: aim for Mars and you’ll at least reach the Moon. In five years, I estimate we’ll be one of the most important players in social media payments. The subscription vertical for SaaS companies will be fully established and will be a very important part of the business.
But what excites me the most is the wallet. It’s our core product, and in five years it will be so mature and have so many integrated services that it will function like a global bank. A global bank for digital entrepreneurs, where they can invest, borrow money to grow their businesses, exchange currencies, and access all the financial services they might need
A global bank without actually being a bank. That sounds huge.
We have all the pieces to build it. The wallet already exists, the payment infrastructure in 20 countries is already up and running, the card is already operational, and the AI is already working. Now it’s a matter of adding layers—loans, investments, insurance, currency exchange—and honestly, we don’t have much left to do. The foundation is laid. We’ve already built the hardest part. The rest is execution, and we’re very fast at that.
One last question. Outside of Kunfupay, who is Rubén Romero?
Just a regular guy from Murcia. I like spending time with my family, with my friends, playing sports, and above all, traveling—though lately I haven’t been able to do it as much as I’d like, because the workload at Kunfupay is brutal. But I’m not complaining. We’re building something big, and that requires sacrifices. There’ll be time to travel once the platform runs on its own. Although, knowing me, by then I’ll probably already be working on something else. (laughs)
But seriously, what drives me is something very simple: proving that from Spain, with the right vision and the right technology, you can build companies that compete with the best in the world. That’s what we’re doing. And we’ve only been at it for two years.