Plerk
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
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Sections to complete：02 · 05
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Plerk was a Mexican employee-benefits fintech founded in 2019 by ex-Rappi employees Miguel Medina and Angel Arias and ex-Banregio Labs' Antonio Martinez. Born as a pandemic pivot from their Y Combinator (Summer 2020) business-travel startup Isibit, Plerk launched in January 2021 as a B2B platform letting companies give employees flexible perks — gym passes, telemedicine, grocery and meal vouchers, Netflix subscriptions — via a prepaid virtual card accepted at millions of vendors. It raised $1 million in pre-seed funding and a $12 million Series A led by Upload Ventures (SoftBank's Latin America spin-off), serving 300 businesses and 40,000 employees across Mexico, Colombia and Chile.
02 / FAILURE REASONS
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03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Plerk is founded in Guadalajara, Mexico, by Medina, Arias and Martinez as a pivot from travel startup Isibit.
- Launch and pre-seed
Plerk launches in January 2021 and raises $1 million in pre-seed funding from Y Combinator, 500 Startups, Magma Partners and others.
- $12M Series A
In August 2022, Plerk raises $12 million in Series A led by Upload Ventures, with Magma Partners, 500 Global and MGV Capital.
- Merges with Minu
In March 2023, Plerk merges with Minu, a Mexican compensation-and-benefits platform, which integrates Plerk's digital prepaid benefits card into its services.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN / AFTERMATH
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