All posts tagged latin american payments

  • June 12, 2011

    Great Visit from Founder of YouSendIt

    Ranjith Kumaran in ColombiaI really enjoyed Ranjith Kumaran’s visit last week here in Bogota. Ranjith came to mentor at the Colombia chapter of the Founder Institute.  He also spoke at the alumni association of one of the most prestigious universities in Colombia.  As you’ll hear if you play the streaming version of this presentation he lays the blame on my doorstep for leaving him with little time to work on prettying up his slides after the several social engagements we had.  Also, Ranjith, very intelligently, stopped by the coast and experienced the amazing atmosphere in Cartagena before arriving in Bogota.

    It’s been about two months since the Founder Institute semester started here in Bogotá and it’s been so gratifying to see the impact that it’s been having on the local ecosystem.  It’s tough to put into words the different levels on which the Founder Institute is starting to transform things here. Something I’ve really enjoyed is the observing the founders as they realize that people like Adeo Ressi and Ranjith Kumaran and the local mentors (building this group has been one of the best things about the Founder Institute for me) are so incredibly accesible and fun to be around.  My impression of Colombia is that, in some respects, it’s quite a formal society, and, because of this, many expect people who have earned a certain level of success to build a wall around them.

    Ranjith and AlanI have to say that the interest in technology startups is accelerating at a rapid pace here in Colombia.  There are really big organizations and companies (some multinationals) who are interested in nurturing this environment.  Nonetheless, it’s the Colombian startups such as CO Internet (Platinum Sponsor) and the regional “Paypal” called Latin American Payments that understood how transformational the Founder Institute will be in this country and decided to sponsor this initiative in Colombia.  Between these sponsors and the local mentors, the energy and interest in giving back has been the common denominator in supporting this initiative and that characteristic is obviously present in people like Adeo and Ranjith.

    While he was here, Ranjith was also able to stop by the Caracol Radio station for an interview.  The Founder Institute session was excellent and, along with local mentors Camilo Gomez and Christian Boelke, Ranjith was able to review a number of the ideas from the Colombia founders.  Ranjith was also able to talk about his new loyalty startup called PunchTab which recently closed a $850k funding round.  Aside from specifics, it helps local entrepreneurs to hear HOW Silicon Valley entrepreneurs even talk about different aspects of their business from customer acquisition to customer development.

    Aside from the impact that these external mentors have on the local environment, it’s great to see the impact that Colombia has on these mentors.  If you listen to any of the interviews, Ranjith comment about the fact that he travels around the world and he quickly felt like Colombia is one of those places where he could spend quite a bit of time in the future.

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  • February 28, 2011

    The Tropical Future

    Tropical FutureIt’s been quite a week.  I was finally able to write about a VC round closing in Colombia.  A local VC actually closed a $1.3M series A round with social gaming company, Zio Studios, based in Colombia.  This has been the talk of the town down here since VC investing is pretty non-existent here (although, private equity investing is pretty well-established).  It’s really another example of how things are changing making geography less of an obstacle and more of a choice of life.

    Last week, I also wrote in a local portal called KienyKe about the stuff going on in the Middle East with the toppling of Mubarak in Egypt and the turmoil in the other countries.  In this new world we’re living in, if entrepreneurs aren’t connected to other world-class entrepreneurs and investors, it’s almost becoming a matter of choice.  As I said, geography is becoming less of an obstacle.

    Even within the Latin American region, digital strategies that target the whole region used to emanate from countries such as Brazil and Mexico and, on occasion, from Argetina (Mercado Libre) or Chile.  Nevertheless, now companies such as PagosOnline with their Latin American Payments (see video) strategy and VivaReal are targeting Latin America all from a headquarters based in Colombia.

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  • February 25, 2011

    Latin American Payments Are Easier Than Ever

    Latin American PaymentsYesterday, during a rainy afternoon in Bogotá, I interviewed the co-founders of Latin American Payments, Jose Velez and Martin Schrimpff, which offers a robust payments platform, anti-fraud system and payments collection all designed specifically for the needs of the Latin American market.  The company is PCI certified, have won international prizes for their platform and are already working with clients such as Sony, Amway, Harvard Business Review and Telefonica and are starting to speak with international retailers, gaming companies and travel players among others.

    Latin American Payments is a division of PagosOnline, a Colombian start-up with almost 100 employees which counts Buscapé, the large Brazilian comparison shopping site, as it’s majority shareholder (75%).  As many know, the South African investment firm, Naspers, bought almost all of Buscapé’s shares for well over US $300M a couple of years back and is busy building it into a Latin American powerhouse (along with it’s satellite companies).

    As the pictures below show, there’s quite a bit of hustle and bustle going on right now at Latin American Payments.  Jose and Martin are busy complementing an impressive team of developers and business people from top banks and international credit card companies as they go after a Latin American e-commerce market that is surging almost 40% annually to $21.8B.

    It might seem strange to offer a Latin American solution from Colombia instead of Mexico or Brazil.  Nevertheless, it makes more sense if you consider that, unfortunately, Colombia is one of the most challenging regions for combating credit card and ATM fraud in the world.  Several years back, I was talking to a local bank executive who told me that ATM machine makers had to continually innovate in Colombia (some of these innovations found their way into the entire product line) because of the “creativity” with which some Colombians would try to “beat the system.”

    Those Colombians are the bane of resourceful and entrepreneurial Colombians like the people at Latin American Payments who are using their ingenuity and hard work to make sure their clients are protected from losses.  Incredibly, as happens all around the world, when you are challenged to survive (and thrive) in such hostile circumstances, you come out stronger.  That’s one of the reasons that Jose and Martin are so confident about the future.

    Nonetheless, there are competitors.  Paypal is working to penetrate the market further and local competitors are also developing their own solutions and expand to other countries.  Jose and Martin are conscious of this, but believe that 8 years of experience, constant investment in their platform and the ability of clients to collect payments from customers in a variety of ways (overcoming the low credit card penetration in the region) are key assets.

    The final asset, they believe, which gives them an edge is the entrepreneurial environment they’ve fomented and the impressive team of young, knowledgeable collaborators they are assembling with the necessary chops to execute on the vision.  Finally, (and for disclosure purposes), I the company its sponsorship of the Founder Institute in Colombia (for which I am the director).

    Latin American Payments from Tropical Gringo on Vimeo.

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