In 2020, online retail sales grew 36.7% in Latin America, the highest increase globally according to the study Global Ecommerce Update 2021. Digitization driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, which also led millions of Latin Americans to access digital financial services, is the backdrop for the launch of ONE, a new product from the Brazilian unicorn EBANX, which also owns LABS. The fintech promises to gather its ten-year payment experience on a single platform, offering a kind of one-stop-shop for global companies interested in selling or expanding existing operations in Latin America.
“ONE is the evolution of EBANX, the platform, our payment offering, and the product as a whole,” sums up Erika Daguani, VP of product at EBANX, in an interview with LABS. The fintech company, which has clients such as AliExpress, Uber, and Spotify, became known for its cross-border model, or international payment processing. Through ONE, however, it will also offer local payment solutions (within the country’s territory) and payin and payout services (which include, for example, the payment of suppliers within and outside countries without the client company needing to have a legal entity in the territory). By the end of June, EBANX will be operating in 15 countries in the region and offering ONE in all of them.
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“Through our unique connections with issuers, acquirers and card schemes, and our technology, we can deliver efficiency and special payment projects that are tailored for enterprise companies – and now with the flexibility of choice given back to them to implement global business models or test new operational models in the region,” says João Del Valle, co-founder and CEO of EBANX.
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In 2019, EBANX began local payment processing in Brazil. The solution reached Colombia in 2020, the year the fintech announced expansion into new markets in Central and South America in an initiative called Push LatAm. Currently, EBANX offers more than 100 local payment options in Latin America and it has connected more than 70 million Latin Americans with global services and products.
This unification is the great value we bring, with payin, payout and this possible combination of formats that only we have. The increased geographic footprint in Latin America and more local operations: it all connects to our value proposition on ONE
Erika Daguani, VP of product at EBANX.
How EBANX ONE works
Behind the scenes of ONE’s single integration, there is a whole range of connections with local payment entities. EBANX‘s proprietary technology allows the fintech to offer hybrid combinations of operating models, processing payments with international and/or domestic settlement, and domestic and/or international payouts. Through the platform, a company can sell in several Latin American countries, in the local currency, and receive the settlement of collected payments in dollars anywhere in the world, without the need for a local entity.
On the end-user side, the main advantage is the single transaction, as companies that make both national and international sales on the same site, for example, can offer a single checkout to shoppers, whether with products from local or international sellers. There is no interference with the user experience.
On the client company’s side, in addition to the power to choose the type of processing, the platform saves, on average, about 250 hours of development for each new integration of a payment method, since it works as a single terminal, using the same technological base for local and international operations.
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EBANX ONE also offers approval rates of 75% to 90% in Latin America, something that, according to the fintech, is well above what internacional acquiring solutions offer, around 50%. The platform also supports more than 300 payment transactions per second, a strategic advantage for global companies that need to process millions of transactions in different markets where they offer their products and services.
For Daguani, ONE will allow companies to access more Latin American markets more easily. Recently, the fintech that already operated in large Latin American markets such as Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina, also arrived in Costa Rica and Paraguay – and by the end of June, it will also reach the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Panama. “He [client company] has the flexibility to test other countries and other models without having to start [the operation] again. It’s like a directional key,” she compares.
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“We have been building this expertise in payment methods in Latin America for 10 years. The biggest pains we have faced are in the crossborder model, which is the most challenging. It is not a simple job, but it is a job that reflects EBANX‘s eyes on the future. Crossborder we have already solved, what are the other pains?”
The fintech has been growing at around 40% per year and over the next three years, with EBANX ONE and expansion into new markets in Latin America, it expects to increase its processing volume fivefold. In addition to payments, the new platform is integrated with all the fintech’s other services, such as integrated fraud and risk management, regulatory advice, market intelligence, customer service and marketing support.
