In September, payments platform dLocal became Uruguay’s first unicorn – a new funding round for the company raised $200 million, valuing the business at $1.2 billion.
Its largest minority shareholder, private equity firm General Atlantic, increased its participation as part of the deal.
Sebastián Kanovich, chief executive of dLocal in Uruguay, says the fragmentation of the payments industry in key markets such as Brazil has benefitted the firm, which works for retailers who need help in entering new emerging markets.
“We are aggregators – so we are agnostic” to developments in the payments industry for retail customers, he says. “All this fragmentation is positive news because it gives better choice for the end user. We don’t have any issue about [wanting to] own the end user – we are a pure B2B [business-to-business] play.”
The latest funding round raised capital for the company to expand into a further 13 countries.
Kanovich adds that as dLocal has been profitable every year since it began operations in 2013 “the capital side of the business will take care of itself” and he doesn’t expect to need further equity finance, “though you never know – we keep our options open.”
