Narayan AmmachchiDigital 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 is known as a cross-border payment platform, as it helps global merchants, such as Amazon, to process payment in developing countries.
At the center of its success is a payment platform called 360, which processes credit card payments in as many as 20 countries.
Last month, it struck a deal with Spanish apparel retailer Zara for processing payments in Uruguay and Paraguay. As a result of the partnership, Zara customers can now pay with both international and locally-issued credit cards. Spotify is using dLocal to collect subscription fees in both cash and digital. Today, even Google Pay is fully compatible with dLocal’s payments solution.
Thanks to this platform, dLocal has reported 100% annual organic growth in the past four years, expanding its operations into new emerging markets in Asia and Africa.
Among its clients are large US and European multinationals, including the likes of Nike, Shopify, Spotify, Uber, Visa, and Zara. Even the Chinese ride-hailing app Didi has begun using its payment platform in recent months.
dLocal will use the freshly-raised money to refine its platform further, making it a critical partner for global merchants seeking to sell their products to emerging market consumers.
“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”, said Sebastián Kanovich, CEO of dLocal. “
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