FinTech: giving global merchants greater access to emerging markets

Unsurprisingly, for a country with a market size of 3.5 million people, Uruguay has a small number of fintechs with only 13 – one less than at the beginning of 2020. 

The major subdivision of the countries’ fintech industry comprises five parts: fintech enterprise services (FES), payments, exchange, open banking, and investments.

Digital payment services provider dLocal has become the first Uruguayan fintech to gain unicorn status after raising US$200 million in a new fundraising round led by US venture capital firm General Atlantic.

Founded in 2016, dLocal also secured investment from Addition, a newly launched investment firm that focuses on early and growth-stage companies.

dLocal focuses on cross-border payment solutions in Latin America, Asia and Africa markets. Since its inception, the company maintained consistent profitability and growth and serves 450 merchants across 20 countries.

“I am extremely proud of what the team at dLocal has achieved since we started serving global e-commerce players four years ago,” said Sebastián Kanovich, CEO of dLocal. “Beyond securing unicorn status and becoming one of the highest-valued Latin American financial technology companies supporting global merchants, we are expanding access and helping those in emerging markets connect to e-commerce, building reliable payment technology tailored to specific local needs, constantly improving our products and growing our global footprint.”

Fintech continues to facilitate easier payment processes, helping industry players diversify services to meet the changing needs of customers. 

“Beyond becoming one of the highest-valued Latin American financial technology companies supporting global merchants. We are expanding access and helping those in emerging markets connect to e-commerce”, Kanovich said.

While the digital payment services provider counts Amazon, Nike, Uber and Spotify among its high-profile customers, the latter company announced at the beginning of September, that “It would be using dLocal’s 360 payment platform to make its music streaming service available to customers in Argentina, Mexico, Chile and other locations in Latin America.”