General Atlantic-led deal values payments company at $1.2bn

Sep 22, 2020 | News | 0 comments

Payments company dLocal Group has become one of Latin America’s best funded venture-backed companies through a deal that valued the business at $1.2bn. Uruguay-based dLocal, which helps international companies process payments in emerging markets, raised $200m in a growth-equity financing round led by General Atlantic.

Latin America is suffering from the worst economic contraction on record, according to the International Monetary Fund. Many countries in the region saw steep drops in the value of their currencies, which reduced the buying power of local consumers.

“There are less available dollars, but [consumers] are spending more of those online,” said dLocal’s founder and chief executive Sebastián Kanovich.
Demand for online services, whether streaming music and video or online shopping, has remained robust. Research firm eMarketer for example, said it believes e-commerce sales in Latin America will rise 19.4% to $83.63bn this year. The research firm revised its estimates of such sales upward because of the coronavirus pandemic.

DLocal enables global corporations to accept local payments for online services from customers and send payments to their local workforce in emerging markets through a variety of methods, including as cash and bank transfers. The company charges a fee, similar to a credit card fee, for each transaction. Latin America is the company’s biggest market.

Founded in 2016, dLocal expects to generate $150m in revenue this year, up from more than $60m in 2019, according to Kanovich. The company is profitable and raised no outside funding before this deal, he added. DLocal’s clients include Amazon.com, Didi Chuxing Technology, Nike, Shopify and Spotify Technology.

DLocal is available in more than 20 countries throughout Latin America, Asia and Africa. The company has six offices world-wide, including in Tel Aviv, where Kanovich, a native of Uruguay, is based.

Source: Wall Street Journal

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