The Latin American mobile banking and payment solutions provider YellowPepper recently raised $15 million in a Series C fund-raising round and has set up a base in Miami, according to The Miami Herald.

The company said the funding, which bring its total venture funding to $30 million, will allow it to sharpen its new focus on the mobile payments industry and launch into four key markets: Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador and Peru. The company currently offers mobile banking in eight countries and may eventually enter other markets, including the U.S., CEO and co-founder Serge Elkiner told the newspaper.

"We're trying to make mobile payments a reality in Latin America," he said. "Our philosophy is that if you really want to go to mobile payments and replace the card use, you really need to replace it in every single place possible."

As an example, the newspaper cited YellowPepper's recent mobile-payment launch in Colombia, a country with more cellphones than people, according to World Bank, and an unbanked population estimated at 35 percent.

"It is the first time in the region and maybe anywhere in the world that there will be a nationwide solution for all the banks to join that is available on every point of sale in the country," Elkiner said. "Seventy percent of the ATMs in [Colombia] will be compatible by the end of the year, and most of the e-commerce sites will be compatible as well. Our next step is Mexico and Ecuador — we'll try to do the same thing. A lot of people are craving these kinds of apps."

Elkiner said over the past four years, YellowPepper has grown 50 percent year over year. It employs about 70 people globally, including five in South Florida where Elkiner lives. He said Miami "is the capital of Latin America."

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