Built on Faria Lima, for the world.
BackChannel was founded in São Paulo in 2022 to fix a structural cost in the BR-US contractor payroll corridor. The problem isn't complicated — it's a tax code applied twice where it should apply once. The fix isn't complicated either. What was missing was someone willing to build the narrow infrastructure to do it correctly.
Guillermo Arslanian
In 2021, while overseeing treasury operations for a São Paulo software company paying 12 US-based engineering contractors, Guillermo ran the numbers on their monthly FX costs. The company was using a conventional cross-border processor. The bill included two IOF events per payroll cycle: one on the BRL outbound conversion, one on the USD routing leg. Code 7.11. 0.38% twice. Every month.
On R$180K monthly payroll — a typical run for that team — the double-dip cost R$684 per month, R$8,208 per year. Not a rounding error. A structural tax on using the wrong corridor architecture. Guillermo mapped the FX mechanics and determined the problem was solvable: a single BRL→USD conversion event, with no intermediary leg, eliminates the second IOF trigger entirely. The US ACH payout is downstream of the conversion — not a second FX event.
BackChannel was founded in 2022 to operationalize that structure. Bootstrapped deliberately — staying focused on the BRL-USD payroll corridor means not diluting the product to chase adjacent markets or venture-scale growth metrics.
The product is the mechanism: one FX leg, one IOF event, 11:00 BRT settlement. That's not a feature description. It's the whole point.
Make the BRL-USD payroll corridor efficient for the next generation of Brazilian tech companies.
Not a generic FX broker. Not a remittance app for individuals. Not a multi-vertical payroll platform. BackChannel operates a single corridor — BRL in, USD out — for Brazilian legal entities paying US contractors. That specificity is a feature. It's why the mechanism works correctly, the settlement SLA holds, and the IOF treatment is structurally sound.
The people behind the corridor
Find us on Faria Lima
Our office is at Av. Brigadeiro Faria Lima — São Paulo's primary financial services corridor, home to asset managers, corporate treasury desks, and the infrastructure that moves capital through Brazil. Being physically present in this district matters when your product is treasury infrastructure: you speak the language, you understand the operating constraints, you know which Pix limit question the CFO will ask on the first call.
BackChannel Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima, 347714 andar
São Paulo, SP 04543-907
Brazil
+55 11 3168 4022
[email protected]
district: Faria Lima
postal: 04543-907
country: Brazil
founded: 2022
stage: bootstrapped