The startup raised $200 million at a valuation of $1.2 billion, becoming Uruguay’s first unicorn.

General Atlantic led a $200 million funding round for Uruguay-based cross-border payment processor dLocal, catapulting the latter into the hallowed, three-comma-club. dLocal became Latin America’s latest unicorn and Uruguay’s first. New investor Addition also participated in the fundraising. (Crunchbase)

dLocal

Founded in 2016, the company had a global horizon in its crosshairs right from the start. It is now a cross-border payment platform that specializes in connecting global businesses to emerging markets. Its customers include Amazon, DiDi, Gearbest, Nike, Shopify, Spotify, Uber, Visa/Earthport, Zara, and more.

It now also has a partnership with Google Pay in over 10 emerging markets.

Furthermore, the dLocal payment gateway can be integrated with Shopify stores. The stores, therefore, have direct access to a wide range of local payment methods in emerging markets.

On September 1 it announced that Spotify Premium was using the company’s 360 payment platform to serve customers in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Mexico.

Earlier, it said Zara was leveraging its payments platform to accept local credit card payments with the option of monthly installments.

dLocal now serves 450 merchants in 20 countries and connects to over 300 alternative payment methods.

The fintech startup claims it is the only 360 payments technology platform designed to handle mass online payments in growth markets across LATAM, APAC & EMEA.

It has been profitable every year and achieved over 100% annual organic growth over the past four years.

Use of funds

The start-up will use the new money to boost its plans for global expansion into new markets. These include Central America, Africa, and Southeast Asia countries.

It also plans to further develop its products so that global merchants find it easier to serve their customers in emerging markets.

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