PayU, the fintech business controlled by prosus With operations in more than 50 countries, it has been described as the PayPal of emerging markets, it made a double agreement to expand its presence in Latin America. The company has acquired Thing, a platform that allows people to recharge credits on other mobile phones remotely; and has led an investment of 46 million dollars in Thirty, a financial “superapp” aimed at small businesses. Thing it has 300.000 monthly active users who transfer about 10 million dollars a month; and the startup originated thanks to And Combinator, Thirty, which launched just 18 months ago, has 4 million customers.
Both are based in Colombia but provide services throughout the Latin American region (and in Ding's case, Globally). For PayU y prosus, offers are significant for two main reasons:
First of all, they are helping prosus access what is still a fast-growing market. The company is listed figures from the US Department of Commerce who estimate that Colombia alone has the fifth largest e-commerce market in Latin America, which as a region has projected reach 260,2 million digital shoppers by the end of 2022, surpassing the United States, with 167,81 billion dollars in purchases.
Second, the measure talks about how PayU y prosus looking to add more diversification to their investment base. It is a development that is interesting considering its proximity to prosus reconsidering investments in other regions, specifically the currently pariah state of Russia, which includes a amortization of 770 million in March of your investment in the social network VK.
“Our recent activity in Colombia reflects the desire to PayU of providing seamless online and cross-border transactions for merchants and consumers,” said Mario Shiliashki, global managing director of PayU's payments division, in a statement. “These are just two examples of how we are bringing useful products and services to millions of people in their daily lives. PayU has helped facilitate the evolution of online payments in Colombia since 2011 and we are proud to expand our services to promote the financial inclusion of SMEs both in Colombia and globally.”
By delving into individual agreements, Thing is the operative name of Tecnipagos, which in turn was a derivative of creditbanco, a payment service provider in the country that is 50 years old. It seems that Thing it had never had any outside funding prior to its spin-off.
From the acquisition operation Thing it was first reported earlier this April 2022, before it closed. There are no public details, but future financial statements of prosus. Own prosus was listed in 2019 by South African multimedia conglomerate Naspers as a separate public company containing all of the company's technology businesses, which includes PayU and other investments in e-commerce and financial technology, as well as a significant stake in China's Tencent. Prosus has a current market capitalization of 152 billion dollars, a figure heavily driven for that Tencent stake.
To get some context on the size of what you are getting PayU, Thing It claims to have about 300.000 monthly active users and makes 30.000 daily transfers totaling about $10 million per month.
PayU describe to Thing as a payment application, but its focus so far has been directly on transfers with a single purpose: top up balance for mobile phones. This in itself is a big business and often goes hand in hand with more general remittance services. Mobile phone credits are used for more than just making calls in emerging markets (phones are becoming a substitute for bank accounts in many developing markets where traditional banking services are expensive or underdeveloped). Often the money sent by friends or family comes in the form of mobile credits. This paves the way for PayU develop more remittance services around Thing and potentially extend your existing remittance operations to the customer base of Thing.
Meanwhile, the investment Thirty It is a round of 46 million dollars along with the participation also of LionTree Partners, Ethos VC, TEN13 and other investors. Thirty had previously participated in a Y Combinator seed round, and the company's backers of 14.3 million in 2021 included YC, Levels Up Ventures, Outbound Ventures, Luxor Capital, Mango.vc, Goodwater Capital, Soma Capital, First Check Venture, Houston Angel Network, FJ Labs, Commerce Ventures, Rhombuz Ventures, Acacia Venture Partners, and Evening Fund.
Thirty does not disclose its valuation, and PayU he also declined to comment on the figure.
The startup has only been around for 18 months and says it already has some 4 million small and medium-sized business customers in 18 countries.
The own Thirty is tapping into two trends that are important in fintech right now. The first involves a wave of fintech businesses building all-in-one platforms, where customers can come for a specific service (financing, billing, or checking account services, for example) and are sold related offers, which in turn are built. around a set of broader data that the fintech builds on that customer in particular. These services often bring third-party behind-the-scenes technology, using APIs to embed those white-label products and display them as their own.
The second is the approach Thirty in small businesses, a cornerstone of the global economy, but one that has traditionally been neglected by technology. thirty esteem that there are some 50 million small businesses in Latin America, and that about 90% of them have not yet adopted any type of technology to manage their finances, so it is a large potential market.
PayU, as a provider and creator of fintech solutions, you will be able to take advantage of Thirty as a channel to make its own customer-oriented technology penetrate more effectively in the market of Colombia and the rest of Latin America, but Thirty will also become another retail channel for the hidden technology of PayU.
“By acquiring and investing in businesses like Thing y Thirty, both global and local SMEs can expand their business within LatAm, providing the best payment service with the consumer experience in mind”, said Francisco León, CEO of PayU Latin America, in a statement. “We are very excited to expand the reach of innovative solutions from Thirty y Thing, particularly as these services are fully aligned with our strategic goal of creating a world without financial borders.”
Although much of the activity of PayU has been in Asia and the emerging markets of Europe, it seems that Latin America will be a big focus in the coming months. It seems that PayU plans to make more investments in the region this year.
