Business

Brazil-based digital wallet PicPay hires former PagSeguro and Cielo president to bridge the gap with investors

Rômulo Dias will be vice president of finance and investor relations. This week, the app reached a 45 million user base

PicPay's headquarters, in Sao Paulo
PicPay's headquarters, in Sao Paulo. Photo: PicPay/Courtesy
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  • Created in 2012, PicPay received investments from J&F group starting in 2015 through another holding company, the neobank Banco Original, and has since become a financial services marketplace;
  • More recently, it has been incorporating content and messenger services, in a model that resembles that of Chinese giants like WeChat.

PicPay announced on Monday that it had appointed Rômulo Dias, former president of Cielo and PagSeguro, as vice-president of finance and investor relations. Latin America’s largest digital wallet wants to become a super app, and also started future listing plans on the stock exchange.

READ ALSO: The next steps of PicPay, the largest digital wallet in Latin America

Dias will report to the company’s chief executive, José Antônio Batista. Batista took over in August, in place of Gueitiro Genso. Since then, Picpay has been bringing several new names to its executive board as well as its board of directors, in a movement towards the capital market.

Created in 2012, PicPay received investments from J&F group starting in 2015 through another holding company, the neobank Banco Original, and has since become a financial services marketplace. More recently, it has been incorporating content and messenger services, in a model that resembles Chinese giants like WeChat.

READ ALSO: The rise of super-apps wannabes in Latin America: Rappi, Magalu and more

With an aggressive expansion movement supported by incentives such as remuneration of balances above the CDI (a daily average of overnight interbank loans that is used as an investment benchmark in the Brazilian financial system), cashback and discounts on product purchases, PicPay more than doubled its customer base in the last 12 months, to 45 million.

Dias told Reuters he accepted the invitation because he realized that PicPay’s executive team has great autonomy. “The company has investment, a renewable business model and has shown that it gives autonomy if they trust you,” he said.

Translated by LABS

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