Por Stiven Cartagena
September 10, 2026
Hiring someone in another country has gone from being unusual to becoming part of the way many companies operate. The problem is that, behind a remote worker, there are still contracts, payments, tax compliance, regulations, and different financial systems that need to work together.
That market continues to expand. Deel's 2026 Global Hiring Report analyzed more than 1 million worker contracts from more than 37,000 companies across 150+ countries, highlighting Latin America's growing role as a source of global talent.
The shift has created an opportunity for companies building the financial and operational infrastructure behind distributed teams. Ontop was founded in Bogotá in 2020 with a relatively simple proposition: help companies hire, onboard and pay talent across borders without having to navigate each country's financial and regulatory complexity on their own.
The Colombian startup entered the market during the acceleration of remote work. It raised capital, expanded rapidly and built a presence across multiple countries. But its next stage looks different.
After years of prioritizing expansion, Ontop is now betting that artificial intelligence can help it grow without repeating the cost structure that came with its first phase.
Ontop grew quickly as companies embraced remote work. In 2024, cofounder Santiago Aparicio left the company, leaving Julián Torres as CEO and triggering a restructuring of the business.
The changes were significant. In 2025, Forbes Colombia reported that Ontop had reduced its expense structure by 10%, while revenue increased 25%. The company also reached positive EBITDA and cash flow, while earnings rose 136% from July 2024. By then, Ontop had processed more than $1 billion in international payments.
The company had previously expanded from 14 employees to 270 across 25 countries and raised a $20 million Series A led by SoftBank and Tiger Global, bringing total funding to more than $31 million.
The new approach is less about growing at any cost and more about making growth financially sustainable.
"Escalar sí, pero con márgenes," Torres told Forbes.
That shift also meant rethinking the company's internal structure. Rather than continuing to add people as the business grew, Ontop began looking for areas where technology could absorb more of the operational workload.
Torres had previously told Contxto that the company was entering a different phase, one focused on moving from being a startup to becoming a more established business.
That evolution is now closely tied to artificial intelligence.
Ontop's current strategy revolves around OntopAI, which the company envisions as a system capable of automating increasingly complex parts of global employment, from hiring and compliance to payments and benefits.
The logic is straightforward: if AI can handle more of the work required to manage an international workforce, Ontop can serve more companies and workers without increasing its headcount at the same pace.
In October 2025, the company had 197 employees across 20 countries, and no significant expansion of the team was planned.
Torres has described the approach as growth with discipline rather than growth for its own sake.
"Crecemos solo en la medida en que el crecimiento no erosione la eficiencia del modelo. La IA nos permite seguir expandiéndonos sin necesidad de crecer en headcount ni infraestructura, manteniendo una estructura liviana y márgenes sanos," he said.
Ontop's product has also expanded beyond payroll. The company now describes itself as a "Global Workforce Engine," allowing businesses to hire, onboard, pay and manage independent contractors across countries.
According to its current platform, Ontop serves more than 950 companies across more than 150 countries. It also offers Ontop Wallet, including a global USD account and Visa card for remote workers.
That financial layer is part of the company's attempt to solve more of the problems that come with working across borders.
"This benefit elevates the quality of life of talent, facilitates global purchases and offers competitive rates without resorting to cryptocurrencies or informal solutions," Torres told Contxto.
The idea is that technology should remove the friction surrounding global work without removing the human element from it.
Ontop started at the intersection of HR and fintech. Its initial challenge was helping companies move money to workers in different countries.
But as distributed work became more common, the problem became larger. Hiring internationally means dealing with contracts, documentation, compliance, payments and financial services at the same time.
Ontop has processed more than $1 billion in international payroll and payments, and its strategy now extends beyond simply moving money from one country to another.
The company wants to become infrastructure for global work.
That means bringing hiring, compliance, payments and financial services into a single system, while using AI to automate more of the processes behind them.
Its pitch to companies is therefore no longer just about paying remote workers faster.
"Companies adopt Ontop because they get speed, cost reduction, immediate payments and impeccable legal management. At the same time, remote talent enjoys benefits that improve their daily lives and allow them to work from anywhere without losing access to quality financial services," Torres told Contxto.
That positioning puts Ontop in a broader race to build the infrastructure for a workforce that increasingly operates across borders.
For the Colombian startup, AI is becoming the mechanism that could make that infrastructure more scalable without recreating the cost structure of its hypergrowth years.
Torres has described the company's next phase as "a new era of global work powered by artificial intelligence."
The ambition goes beyond payroll. Ontop wants companies to be able to hire, pay and offer benefits to talent anywhere in the world with the same simplicity with which they send an email.
For a startup that began by solving the mechanics of paying remote workers, the next challenge is turning that infrastructure into an operating system for a workforce that is increasingly global by default.
