Damien Kantor
08/13/2021 20:08
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 08/13/2021 20:08
To the surprise of many,
the Ualá logo flashed yesterday for several minutes on the Nasdaq's giant screen
located in the heart of New York's Time Square.
Thus, the stock market on which the world's largest technology companies are listed, celebrated that the fintech created by Pierpaolo Barbieri
has just raised US $ 350 million
from private investors, who
valued it at US $ 2.45 billion
.
Precisely for this reason,
Ualá is a new Argentine unicorn
, as companies worth more than US $ 1 billion are called, such as Mercado Libre, Globant and Despegar. A real merit if one takes into account that the company
has not yet reached 4 years of life
. “This is a recognition of the ability to solve specific problems in the region. In Latin America, half of the population never had access to financial services, ”Barbieri told
Clarín
.
Born in October 2017,
Ualá carries received investments of US $ 520 million
.
In this last stage, it received contributions from various funds and companies, among which the Chinese Tencent, SoftBank, George Soros and Goldman Sachs stand out.
To date,
this is the largest private investment round in the country
, the startup said in a statement.
That may change, as investment in Latin American startups is at record levels.
According to ARCAP, the entity that brings together 40 funds, in the first semester of 2021
US $ 6.2 billion were invested in the region
, more than double in the last two years.
This does not detract from Ualá's merits, but there are already several Argentine companies that are part of the exclusive unicorn club.
Ualá has 1,000 employees and Barbieri assures that they plan to double the workforce in the next 18 months.
"
If we plan to go public?
No and for several years
.
With the capital we receive, we can continue to grow without going public, ”says Barbieri, a 34-year-old vocational historian from Caballito.
For now, he says that they are recruiting one person per day, "sometimes more."
Ualá is part of the fintech generation, as technology companies focused on financial businesses are known.
Specifically, it offers prepaid cards, loans, installment credits and service and insurance payments, among other things, unified in a mobile application.
Just 8 months ago it landed in Mexico, where they already have 200,000 clients
.
Expansion on a regional scale is within the objectives, but Barbieri says that for now "
in Mexico we have a lot to grow
."
The other major objective is to complete the merger of Wilobank, Eduardo Eurnekian's digital bank, an operation announced months ago and which is subject to authorization from the Central Bank.
With
more than 3.3 million prepaid Mastercards issued in Argentina
, Ualá was one of the pioneers in venturing into the business of offering rechargeable credit cards, which equates it to debit cards.
About 22% of Argentines between 18 and 25 have a Ualá card, they point out.
Strictly speaking, fintech targets two classes of public: young people and the unbanked population.
Ualá has its headquarters in Palermo, and subsidiaries in Rosario and Córdoba. Barbieri studied history, he
is the author of a book on the economy in the Spanish civil war “that nobody read”
. The startup, on the other hand, climbed positions in its short history and today competes hand in hand with banks, finance companies and especially with Mercado Pago, the powerful financial arm of Mercado Libre. In 2019 it took a big leap, raising US $ 150 million, with an estimated valuation of US $ 900 million.
Yesterday, in a studied press round, Barbieri downplayed the titles given by stock market jargon.
“Being a unicorn or not doesn't really matter.
Nothing changes when the $ 1 billion valuation threshold is passed.
The important thing is to create the best team of collaborators.
We have 14 nationalities in Ualá and in 35 cities in more than 6 countries ”, assured the entrepreneur.
Beyond all, so far this year there have been several Argentine companies that have qualified as unicorn (Aleph Holding, for example), or that are about to do so, such as Satellogic.
There are others that are difficult to assess, such as Etermax, creator of the Trivia Crack game, which was born profitable and grows with its own funds.