dLocal Sees Promise in Brazil as Payment Volumes Jump

For payments services provider dLocal, Brazil represents the past and the future.

“As you know, Brazil is where we started, seven years ago,” Maria Oldham, the company’s senior vice president of corporate development, investor relations and strategic finance, said during an earnings call Wednesday (Aug. 16).

“It is also a highly developed market in terms of digital payments penetration and technology. But this market is far from mature from a growth opportunity standpoint.”

Her comments came as Uruguay-based dLocal reported quarterly numbers showing its total payment and revenue doubling year over year and increasing 80% quarter over quarter in South America’s largest country.

Oldham attributed this growth to merchants in the commerce, advertising and streaming space, as well as the company’s local-to-local payments solution.

“This high growth in a large and competitive geography such as Brazil underscores the quality of our solution as we continue to gain share in the market,” she said. “We continue to see strong growth opportunities in Brazil going forward.”

Overall, the company’s TPV rose 80% year-over-year and 22% for the quarter, exceeding $4 billion for the first time.

“To put this in perspective, this quarterly TPV is more than double our TPV for the whole year of 2020, the year before we went public,” said Co-CEO Sebastian Kanovich.

Kanovich became co-CEO Tuesday (Aug. 15) with the hiring of Pedro Arnt, former finance chief at Latin American eCommerce giant Mercado Libre, as its co-chief executive.

In addition to its interest in Brazil, dLocal earlier this year said it was making a significant investment into Argentina, spending $100 million and hiring 400 new workers in that country.

Not mentioned on the call were Tuesday’s reports that dLocal was exploring a sale, and had received takeover interest.

A company spokesperson told PYMNTS Tuesday that dLocal could “not comment on market rumors or speculations.”

A report by Bloomberg News notes that dLocal had wanted to strengthen its management team in recent months as it saw its share price fall. Arnt told the news outlet he doesn’t anticipate further management changes in the near future.

“As an early employee of one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies, we think his professional endorsement will surface the value DLO brings to merchants,” James Friedman, an analyst at Susquehanna, wrote of Arnt’s hiring, per the Bloomberg report.