In its first year of life, the Uruguayan platform that offers online payment methods for emerging markets dLocal grew by 400%. From starting the project with four employees, it ended 2016 with 150 employees and operating in 18 countries. In this context, it is not surprising that Forbes has chosen it as one of the technologies to try in 2017.
Last week the prestigious magazine specialising in business and finance published on its website a list of the 20 technology companies in the world that are producing significant value for their B2B (business-to-business) customers. The spin-off company run by Sergio Fogel and Andrés Bzurovski, Astropay, was the only one selected locally.
The tool, which has the bulk of its customers in the US and Europe, focuses on offering payment procedures in emerging markets where international credit cards are not widely used, which hinders marketing to foreign companies.
"If Facebook wants to sell advertising in Brazil, dLocal allows users to pay with the equivalent of Redpagos or Abitab in that country," said dLocal CEO Sebastián Kanovich.
One of Uber's biggest challenges today is dealing with those who do not have an international credit card. If you were a dLocal customer in Uruguay - you are in other markets - when you enter the app you could pay, in addition to Visa and MasterCard, through bank transfers from a local financial institution such as Itaú, OCA, RedBROU, Redpagos and Abitab. "We help merchants to do this localisation, through a series of integration technologies," he said.
Kanovich expressed the importance of this type of recognition as a method of gaining visibility and validation, as it gives a "seal of quality" to the product. However, he acknowledged that he does not attach much importance to this type of distinction. In his opinion, the fact that companies such as Facebook and Sony already rely on his services to make payments "is a source of much more pride than being mentioned" in the prestigious magazine.
The company plans to expand into other countries in the medium term. It is currently in the process of opening a new operation in India. "We want to add more geographically," he said. On the other hand, they want to conquer more businesses to adhere to their platform and, finally, increase their staff. In Uruguay, they are looking for talented professionals with ambition: "We are a company of very young people. We are not restrictive, you don't have to have 15 years of experience. If you are good, eager and want to take the world by storm, we are interested in you".
Every six months they double the size of their operation. "The secret of a company is to be able to increase its size without doubling its human resources. But it would be strange if in a year's time we didn't have 100 more people," the CEO concluded.
Source: El País
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