Amparo Nalvarte was working on an end-of-degree project in Business Administration and Management at Universidad del Pacífico (Peru), where she devised a means of payment equivalent to bank cards but easier to use and cheaper for businesses, which led her to start her startup.
In 2013, Amparo Nalvarte founded Culqi with Nicolás Di Pace. Culqi is a Quechua word that means money. This startup seeks to simplify payments in Latin America and provides businesses with a tool to carry out transactions online.
Culqi started using QR codes when she received an investment from Wayra in 2014. The company has changed slogans several times, such as “Culqi Pagos Simples” or “Culqi POS.” Currently, it is a friendly payment gateway
During the acceleration process with Wayra, Amparo Nalvarte pivoted the company to turn it into a payment gateway at a time when these were not common in Peru, and those that existed were expensive and with poor user experience.
Amparo Nalvarte and her partner have gone through different processes of incubation, seed capital, and acceleration. Institutions such as the MIT Technology Review, Universidad del Pacífico, Wayra Peru (Telefónica), Digital Bank LatAm, Start-Up Peru, and Start Tel Aviv have recognized their entrepreneurs and promoted the company.
Its founders have passed through different incubation processes, getting seed capital, incubation, and acceleration. MIT Technology Review, Universidad del Pacífico, Wayra Peru (Telefónica), Digital Bank LATAM, Start-Up Peru, and Start Tel Aviv are some of the organizations that have supported Culqi.
