Palenca

Palenca is an income and employment verification platform that operates as the first payroll API provider in Latin America. Founded in 2021 by José Carlos Aguilar, Pierre Delarroqua, and Antoine Nguyen, the company positions itself as an income bureau that enables consumers to securely share employment data with financial institutions through API connections. The platform initially launched as Vech, offering credit products to gig economy workers such as Uber and Rappi drivers, but pivoted after discovering that building data infrastructure was more valuable than lending operations. Palenca integrates with multiple data sources including gig economy platforms, HR systems, e-commerce employers, and government databases like Mexico's IMSS. The company serves over 115 million workers across six Latin American countries including Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, and Chile. Its client base includes over 70 financial institutions and fintechs such as Banco Falabella, Rappi, Neon, and Kavak, who use the API to validate income, verify employment history, assess creditworthiness, and conduct background checks. The platform provides more than 50 data points including historical earnings, real-time income information, employment verification, and identity validation. Palenca participated in Y Combinator's Summer 2021 batch and has raised approximately $5 million in funding from investors including Y Combinator, Experian Ventures, Foundation Capital, Gilgamesh Ventures, 500 Global, and others. The company has formed strategic partnerships with organizations like Falabella Financiero, NOMINATIVA, and Serasa Experian to expand financial inclusion. Palenca's technology helps financial institutions reduce default rates, improve risk assessment accuracy, and streamline digital credit approval processes by replacing manual income verification methods such as PDF documents and pay stubs with automated, real-time data connections.