dLocal doubles African footprint & partners with Verve and Fawry

By Pavithra R

Uruguay based FinTech company dLocal, providing cross-border payments platform connecting global merchants with emerging markets, has announced the expansion of its payments network to include Kenya, Senegal, Ghana, and Cameroon.

The expansion comes on the heels of an additional expansion announcement in LATAM and the Caribbean, with Costa Rica, The Dominican Republic, and Panama, bringing the total number of countries dLocal operates to 26. The expansion includes the following integrations to the dLocal 360° payment platform:

• Kenya: Enabling merchants selling into Kenya to accept payments from mobile money platforms mPesa and Airtel.
• Senegal: Enabling merchants expanding into Senegal to take payments from mobile money platforms Orange and Wizall Money.
• Ghana: Enabling payment acceptance for merchants in Ghana to include mobile money platforms MTN, Vodafone, Tigo, and Airtel.
• Cameroon: Added payment methods include mobile money platforms Orange & MTN.
• Payouts: Merchants can now execute local payments and deposit local currency directly to mobile money and local bank accounts in all supported African countries.
• Single API integration: Current dLocal clients can immediately grow revenue in these 4 countries via the platform’s API, without any additional integration.

“Africa is a tremendous untapped e-commerce opportunity. The number of internet users is significant, starting 2020 with 453 million users, and the region has huge potential for growth with an under 40% penetration rate. Mobile money schemes are experiencing the most growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Mobile money platforms, such as mPesa, Orange, and Tigo, for example, have grown in popularity across the continent and should be accepted by companies looking to scale their businesses in this region. We’re excited to expand our network to include these four countries and solve the payments part of the growth equation for our clients,” said Adebiyi Aromolaran, Head of Expansion Africa of dLocal.

Besides the African expansion, dLocal also announced key integration partnerships with 2 major payment providers: Verve, out of Nigeria, and Fawry, out of Egypt. The FinTech is now supporting the 47M locally issued Verve cards and tokens through its payment platform. Fawry, the leading cash payment method in Egypt, is adding 166,500 cash payment locations to the dLocal network.

Founded in 2016, dlocal is a 360 payments technology platform designed to handle mass online payments in emerging markets. It helps in eliminating cross-border payment complexities and minimizing operational costs. The company recently raised $200 mn investment and became Uruguay’s first unicorn.