How dLocal Empowers Global Businesses and Emerging Market Consumers

The world’s population is growing rapidly. Expectations put 9.8 billion people on the planet by 2050 and 11.2 billion people by 2100, according to projections by the United Nations. The most significant population increases will be seen in just a handful of countries, including India, Nigeria and Indonesia. However, less than 20% of consumers in these emerging markets have access to international credit cards. In Nigeria, which is expected to become the third largest country in the world, only 3% of the population has a credit card. For global businesses looking to expand into these markets, this poses a unique challenge. 

dLocal (Nasdaq: DLO), a technology-first payments platform, bridges the gap between consumers in emerging markets and global enterprise businesses. With cross-border payment products, dLocal makes expansion into emerging markets easier while advancing access to global enterprise for consumers in those markets.  

In September 2020, dLocal made history by becoming Uruguay’s first unicorn with a valuation of $1.2 billion – just four years after the startup was founded. Following this achievement, the financial technology company listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in June 2021 raising $617.65 million in its initial public offering. Today, dLocal is revolutionizing payment processing solutions around the globe.  

“As technology becomes more ingrained in every single process, if we don’t ensure that billions of people have access to the latest technology, then the gap between the developing world and developed world will only get worse,” said Pedro Arnt, Co-CEO at dLocal.

Growth Opportunity for Businesses 

The popular form of payment in emerging markets is Alternative Payment Methods (APMs). APMs refer to any form of payment that isn’t a major international credit card like MasterCard, Visa or Amex. Examples of APMs include digital wallets like Apple Pay or Google Pay, mobile money or a combination of digital payments and cash.

Since the vast majority of people in emerging markets use APMs for payments, global businesses need to be able to collect payments across digital platforms like digital wallets or local credit cards. The challenge for businesses lies with the hyper localized payment systems and consumer behaviors for each market. dLocal simplifies the complex problem of legal, tax, and regulatory matters across 40 markets covering Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. As Arnt described it, “We make extremely complex emerging markets accessible and simple to global merchants through a single sophisticated API [application programming interface].” dLocal’s all-in-one payment process ensures a seamless and secure experience for its customers, no matter their location. 

With 17 office locations around the world, including in Nigeria, India, Singapore and Brazil, dLocal can also identify consumer behaviors that help international businesses optimize their reach in diverse regions. For a business looking to expand into Indonesia and Africa, for example, it needs to understand the behaviors of potential consumers in each market. According to dLocal, an Indonesian consumer uses an average of three digital wallets, but in Africa, mobile money accounts are extremely popular, with more than 780 million registered accounts.  

In 2021, dLocal partnered with Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) to announce that non-domestic merchants were able to sell their products in the Brazil Amazon online storefront for the very first time thanks to dLocal’s marketplace solution. The partnership also enabled Amazon to pay its vendors in U.S. dollars. In 2022 dLocal announced a strategic partnership with BigCommerce (Nasdaq: BIGC), which enabled its merchants to accept localized payments in the Latin American region for the first time. dLocal’s global customers also include Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG).

Looking Ahead

As dLocal expands into new markets and offers new services, it continues to guarantee customers that every one of their products is done to the compliance standard of each specific market. In 2023, the company was granted payment service licenses for Kenya, Rwanda and Nigeria and a payment institution license from the Central Bank of Brazil. 

According to Arnt, dLocal’s goal is to continue to expand its portfolio of licenses around the globe. “All of these incremental licenses allow us to offer more products and more services to our global merchants in each of these markets,” Arnt said. 

In addition to being able to offer payment collection services in emerging markets, dLocal can also distribute money to emerging market consumers. “We heavily inform our product roadmap based on our merchants’ needs,” said Arnt. For example, if a ride-hailing service was operating in an emerging market and needed to pay its drivers, that company can come to dLocal for a solution, dLocal for Platforms, which allows for local disbursements to tens of thousands of gig economy workers.“  
 
dLocal for Platforms simplifies the complex process of distributing payments to users located around the globe and offers a seamless onboarding process. “This has become a new product vertical for us,” said Arnt. “As a matter of fact, it was the fastest growing product in our portfolio during Q3. We are continuously innovating on behalf of our merchants to solve their problems in emerging markets."

dLocal continues to innovate and expand into new markets around the globe. Southeast Asia and parts of the Middle East are the next frontier for the company. Meanwhile, its mission continues to be bridging the gap between emerging markets and global businesses. “It’s just deeply ingrained in our DNA. That’s who we are. We are a global organization that’s set up to meet global needs across multiple geographies,” said Arnt. 

To learn more about how dLocal is Reimagining Tomorrow, please visit their website.