Santiago Villavicencio
Software engineer & fintech builder in Mexico City
I build payment infrastructure. I co-founded Klu Carpay, where we tokenize vehicle license plates as a payment method: cameras recognize your plate and the transaction just happens. Today I'm a product engineer at Bitrus Exchange, leading a team of developers and translating between business and engineering. Before that I shipped full-stack products across mining analytics, consulting, and e-commerce.
Experience
Product Engineer · Bitrus Exchange
- Joined as Software Engineer II; now leading a team of developers as the bridge between business and engineering.
- Backend services for a cryptocurrency exchange: Python, FastAPI, high-throughput trading and asset-management APIs.
Co-Founder & CTO · Klu Carpay
- Co-founded a startup that turns vehicle license plates into a payment method for gas stations, toll booths, and parking.
- Raised $500K USD from Grupo Klu and built the whole platform: LPR pipeline on Raspberry Pi hardware, cloud backend, and a React Native app on both stores.
Jr. Full Stack Engineer · Operanex
- Mining analytics platform: Svelte frontends, tRPC backends, real-time dashboards for operations teams.
Full Stack Engineer (freelance) · CIKA Consulting
- Sole developer of the client-facing app (Next.js + NestJS); fine-tuned Qwen 7B into an AI advisor matching clients to consulting plans.
E-Commerce Intern · HARMAN International
- Ran JBL and Harman Kardon storefronts across Mexico and Central America; used Google Analytics to cut bounce and lift conversion.
Education
B.S. in Innovation and Development Engineering
Tecnológico de Monterrey
Projects
Klu Pool
Send money over WhatsApp: peer-to-peer transfers in the chat people already use.
WhatsApp · Fintech
MIA
WhatsApp automation for small businesses: a generated persona writes and posts as the business.
NestJS · GPT
ColmenaApp
Mobile app built in Flutter during my student years.
Dart · Flutter
Gallery
Gallery storefront with its own checkout flow.
TypeScript · Next.js