Pagaleve gets Banco Central do Brasil approval to operate as a Payment Institution

Brazilian fintech Pagaleve, which specializes in installment payments via Pix, has received authorization from Banco Central do Brasil to operate as a Payment Institution (IP). For high-risk PSPs, the useful part is simple: the company can now issue postpaid payment instruments and act as a payment initiation provider under a formal regulatory label.

1. The authorization was published by Banco Central do Brasil in the Diário Oficial da União (DOU) on Thursday, September 10. Under the document, Pagaleve may operate as an issuer of postpaid payment instruments and as a payment transaction initiator (ITP).
2. In practical terms, Pagaleve already offers installment payments. The new approval gives it a regulated framework to issue a payment instrument where the customer pays later, and to initiate payments at the user’s request.
3. Henrique Weaver, CEO and co-founder of Pagaleve, said on LinkedIn: “The 60% of low-income Brazilians do not have a credit card, but they do have Pix. Building credit for this population is not a niche. It is infrastructure. And infrastructure needs regulation.”
4. The company is headquartered in São Paulo and has share capital of R$171.4 million. Its controlling shareholders are Henrique Eduardo Martins Weaver, Sergio Kulikovsky and Michael Stephen Greer. The Brazilian operation concentrates the BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) business, while the company keeps an international corporate structure.
5. Founded in 2021 by Henrique Weaver, formerly of McKinsey, Coca-Cola and Uber, and Michael Greer, formerly of Zip, Pagaleve offers three installment-payment options: biweekly in four interest-free installments via Pix; monthly in up to 12 installments with interest; and “Parcela tudo,” which lets users split purchases at any merchant that accepts Pix. The company says its AI-based risk and transaction security system approves 70% of operations, analyzing up to 100 data points about the purchase and the consumer in three seconds.

Pagaleve said it processed an annualized TPV (total payment volume) of R$3.000 million in 2025. It is also fundraising: in October last year, the fintech closed a R$160 million round combining equity with contributions to its FIDC (Fundo de Investimento em Direitos Creditórios, or credit rights investment fund). OIF Ventures led the round, Sun Hung Kai & Co co-led it, and Credit Saison, Endeavor Catalyst, and 12 existing shareholders also participated.