Yappy
Yappy is a Panama-based digital payments platform, wholly owned by Banco General, S.A., enabling instant peer-to-peer transfers and merchant payments via cell phone number, serving over one million consumers and thousands of merchants across eight partner banks.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersPaitilla, Panama
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Yappy does
Yappy is a Panama-based digital instant payment platform operated by Yappy, S.A., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Banco General, S.A. The platform enables consumers to send and receive money and pay merchants using only a cell phone number as the address, eliminating the need to exchange long bank account numbers. It operates as two interconnected offerings: Yappy Personal for peer-to-peer transfers and consumer payments, and Yappy Comercial for merchant payment acceptance via static and dynamic QR codes, payment links, merchant directory listings, and an e-commerce payment button. The product is distributed through mobile applications on iOS, Android, and Huawei, through affiliated Panamanian banks (Banco General, Credicorp Bank, Davivienda, Metrobank, St. George's Bank, Banisi Panama, Caja de Ahorros), and through a Tilopay partnership that enables native integration with Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce, Magento, and Vtex e-commerce platforms.
The underlying technology combines cloud-hosted APIs with bank integrations that aggregate multiple bank accounts into a single mobile interface, secured by biometric authentication and supporting features such as recurring payments, bill splitting, and personalized transfers. A REST API for the Payment Button (Botón de Pago) supports PHP, Node.js, and .NET development, with additional APIs for authentication, transaction history, cancellation, and payment-method retrieval. The platform is reported to serve over one million customers across Panama, with all transactions settled in U.S. dollars.
Yappy's revenue model is asymmetric: the consumer product (Yappy Personal) is free, with no fees, charges, or commissions, while merchants using Yappy Comercial pay a 1% + ITBMS (Panama's sales tax) commission per transaction, with a $0.02 minimum, debited as a consolidated daily charge. Additional merchant services, including API integrations and identifier-based reconciliation (Pago con Identificador), are subject to a separate fee schedule. As a captive subsidiary of Panama's largest bank, Yappy's intellectual property, brand, and operating infrastructure are owned and resourced by Banco General, and the platform operates exclusively within Panama with no disclosed geographic expansion.
Yappy firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Yappy
- Legal name
- Yappy, S.A.
- Website
- https://yappy.com.pa
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Yappy is a Panama-based digital payments platform, wholly owned by Banco General, S.A., enabling instant peer-to-peer transfers and merchant payments via cell phone number, serving over one million consumers and thousands of merchants across eight partner banks.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Yappy industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Mobile Payments
- NAICS
- Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (522320)
- SIC
- Finance Services (6199)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Marketplace / Platform Acquiring (PayFac & Sub-Merchant Management) (FSAMABAF)
Keywords
Where Yappy is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Paitilla
- HQ country
- Panama
- HQ region
- Latin America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Yappy business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Yappy Personal - User Fees: The use and functionalities of the Yappy Personal platform do not incur costs, charges, commissions, or fees for the User. However, Yappy may establish fees for users who exceed transaction limits or whose transactional behavior resembles a business (e.g., personal user behaving as a business).
- Yappy Comercial - Transaction Commission: Merchants pay 1% + ITBMS (Panama's sales tax) per transaction received through any Yappy Commercial payment method. Minimum commission is $0.02 per transaction. Commission is calculated per transaction and debited as a single daily charge to the merchant's linked business account for the total of all received payments. Customers do not pay this commission.
- Yappy Comercial - Services Plus: Additional subscription services for merchants including API Integrations (Anulation API, Authentication API, History API, Payment Methods API) and Payment with Identifier. Subject to additional costs as specified in the published fee schedule.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Free for individual users |
| Transaction based/ take rate | Monthly | 1% + ITBMS per transaction for merchants |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels7 records
Yappy product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Yappy is a digital instant payment platform operating exclusively in Panama through two interconnected offerings. Yappy Personal enables consumers to send and receive money between individuals and pay merchants using only a cell phone number, aggregating bank accounts from multiple partner banks into a single mobile app. Yappy Comercial provides merchants with multiple digital payment acceptance methods including static and dynamic QR codes, payment buttons for e-commerce, payment links, and POS integration, with settlement to their affiliated bank accounts.
Product overview
Yappy is a digital instant payment platform operated by Yappy, S.A. (a subsidiary of Banco General, S.A.) in Panama. The platform operates as two interconnected offerings: Yappy Personal (for consumers) enables peer-to-peer transfers, person-to-merchant payments, and gift card functionality via mobile app using phone numbers. Yappy Comercial (for businesses) provides multiple payment collection methods including Directorio Yappy (merchant directory), Código QR Estático/Dinámico (static/dynamic QR codes), Botón de Pago (online payment button), Link de Pago (payment links), Yappy en Caja (POS integration), and POS terminal support. Premium services include Pago con Identificador (identifier-based reconciliation) and Integraciones API (API integrations for transaction management). The ecosystem connects over one million customers across multiple partner banks including Banco General, Banistmo, Caja de Ahorros, Credicorp Bank, Davivienda, MetroBank, and St. George's Bank.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Quantifiable outcome
- Over 1 million customers using the platform
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Yappy
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments2 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Yappy technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration6 records
AI capability3 records
Feature10 records
Yappy partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- TilopaycoreStrategic integration partnership enabling Yappy Payment Button integration with major e-commerce platforms. Tilopay provides direct integration with Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce, Magento, and Vtex, simplifying the checkout process for merchants without complex development work.
- Credicorp BankcoreAffiliated bank partner enabling Yappy integration. Credicorp Bank customers can access Yappy services through the bank's online and mobile banking platforms.
- Davivienda PanamacoreAffiliated bank partner enabling Yappy integration. Davivienda customers can link their accounts to Yappy and make/receive payments.
- MetrobankcoreAffiliated bank partner enabling Yappy integration. Metrobank has integrated Yappy into its services, allowing customers to access payment functionality.
- St. George's BankcoreAffiliated bank partner enabling Yappy integration for retail banking digital payments.
- Banisi PanamacoreAffiliated bank partner enabling Yappy integration.
- Caja de AhorroscoreAffiliated bank partner enabling Yappy integration for savings bank customers.
Scale indicators2 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Yappy competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Zelle: US bank-led instant P2P payment network operating across 1,000+ banks. Highly comparable to Yappy's bank-aggregated, phone-addressed instant transfer model, but at much larger US scale.
- Venmo: Mobile-first P2P payment app owned by PayPal with social features (emoji, notes). Closest analog to Yappy Personal's phone-number transfers, split-bill, and personalization functionality.
- Mercado Pago: Latin America's leading digital wallet and merchant acquirer, offering QR, payment links, and POS across multiple countries. Comparable end-to-end consumer/merchant payment stack to Yappy Comercial.
- Cash App: Block's mobile payment app offering free P2P transfers and merchant/business tools. Comparable consumer UX, fee model (free personal), and merchant payment features.
Regional players
- Daviplata: Banco Davivienda's mobile wallet in Colombia providing P2P and merchant payments. Directly comparable as a bank-distributed mobile wallet with phone-number addressing and QR acceptance.
- PIX: Brazil's central-bank-operated instant payment system. Conceptually analogous to Yappy — phone-keyed instant transfers across multiple banks — though state-run and at vastly larger scale in Brazil.
- Nequi: Colombian digital wallet spun out of Bancolombia, offering phone-number-based P2P and merchant payments. Closest structural analog as a bank-affiliated mobile wallet in Latin America.
- Tigo Money: Mobile money service operating across Central America including Panama. Comparable digital wallet and merchant payment proposition in the same Panamanian market.
Broad incumbents
- M-Pesa: Vodafone's pioneering mobile money platform across Africa and parts of Asia. Comparable as a telco/bank-distributed mobile wallet with P2P and merchant payment features, though at vastly larger global scale.
Others
- Tilopay: Panamanian payment gateway that integrates with Yappy and other methods across Shopify, Wix, WooCommerce, Magento, and Vtex. Listed as a partner but also a regional payment-processor peer serving overlapping merchants.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Yappy compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Yappy financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Yappy leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Yappy funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Yappy M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Yappy
What does Yappy do?
Yappy is a digital instant payment platform operating exclusively in Panama through two interconnected offerings. Yappy Personal enables consumers to send and receive money between individuals and pay merchants using only a cell phone number, aggregating bank accounts from multiple partner banks into a single mobile app. Yappy Comercial provides merchants with multiple digital payment acceptance methods including static and dynamic QR codes, payment buttons for e-commerce, payment links, and POS integration, with settlement to their affiliated bank accounts.
Is Yappy a public or private company?
Yappy is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was Yappy founded?
Yappy was founded in 2019. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Yappy based?
Yappy is headquartered in Paitilla, Panama, in the Latin America region.
How does Yappy make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Yappy Personal - User Fees are the primary driver. The others are yappy Comercial - Transaction Commission and yappy Comercial - Services Plus.
Who are Yappy's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Zelle, Venmo, Mercado Pago and Cash App. Regional players are Daviplata, PIX, Nequi and Tigo Money. M-Pesa is listed as a broad incumbent. Tilopay is listed as an others.
Does Yappy have an API?
Yes. Yappy offers a REST API for integrating the Botón de Pago (Payment Button) into e-commerce websites. The API provides two main endpoints: (1) /payments/validate/merchant for validating the merchant and obtaining an authentication token, and (2) /payments/payment-wc for order creation. Production URL: https://apipagosbg.bgeneral.cloud; Testing URL: https://api-comecom-uat.yappycloud.com. Additional APIs available for Yappy Comercial include: API de Anulación (transaction reversal), API de Autenticación (secure session communication), API de Historial (transaction history and status queries), and API de Métodos de Cobro (payment method retrieval). Supports development in PHP, Node.js, and .NET. Developer documentation is at www.yappy.com.pa/comercial/desarrolladores/boton-de-pago-yappy-nueva-integracion.
What industry is Yappy in?
Yappy's product category is Mobile Payments. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAMABAF, Marketplace / Platform Acquiring (PayFac & Sub-Merchant Management). Its NAICS code is 522320 and its SIC code is 6199.