Qolo’s Patricia Montesi on launching a payments company during the pandemic
- The pandemic has challenged institutions in so many ways.
- Qolo has publicly launched its all in one solution for B2B payments.

Launching a new firm in the face of this global crisis takes fortitude. Timing couldn’t be worse. Or could it? Demand for different types of digital payments is ramping. That’s the space Qolo plays in. A bit like Marqeta, a bit like Fiserv, the company was launched by a team with a lot of payments industry experience to be a next-generation B2B payments hub and an all-in-one payments solution.
CEO Patricia Montesi joins us on the podcast to talk about building and launching a payments firm in the midst of the COVID crisis and the challenges and opportunities presented by this time. We drill down into Qolo’s capabilities and she describes how firms are using its API to bring payments in-house. Qolo is going global from its inception and Patricia talks about the need to build cross-border capabilities.
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The following excerpts were edited for clarity.
Team building
I started in payments in 2003 at a little company called Wildcard Systems. It was the first built-for-purpose, open loop prepaid system. It was there that I met my three co-founders, my partners for Qolo. We’ve worked together at companies big and small over the years in the payments industry.
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