Lessons from dLocal's co-founder Sergio Fogel - the emerging market fintech powerhouse

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Sergio Fogel: From INSEAD to Uruguay Entrepreneur and Co-President and Chief Strategy Officer of dLocal

Within the startup ecosystem, the Silicon Valley playbook has long been the gold standard. Yet, outside the bubble of California, a new wave of innovators has been setting a different path—one rooted in local insights, driven by global ambitions, and dependent on flawless execution. The Uruguayan fintech payment firm dLocal has become a leader in cross-border payments for emerging markets and illustrates this approach.

The company became Uruguay's first unicorn and is presently listed on Nasdaq. They offer over 900 payment methods across 40+ countries worldwide and have a customer base that includes giant tech companies like Amazon, Uber and Booking.com.

Most pertinent to this column, dLocal has challenged the status quo, redefining the playbook for scaling globally.

In a recent discussion on The Pnyx, Sergio Fogel, dLocal's Co-President and Chief Strategy Officer, walked us through his playbook, explaining how they did this by building a unique early international strategy, a strong culture, and a unified offer tailored to growth in emerging markets.

Solving Real Pain Points: dLocal Innovation Rooted in Frustration

Alongside his cofounder, and after an INSEAD MBA, Sergio began his entrepreneurial journey selling virtual phone numbers. They learned first-hand the prevalence of fraud in online transactions and payments. Combining this insight with his experience in payments while traveling led to the original idea for dLocal.

“Focus on problems that hurt you,” Sergio argued. “Solve them, and you’ll find others with the same need.” dLocal’s platform addressed two widespread issues in emerging markets: high transaction rejection rates and the broader lack of international credit card access to a huge segment of the population. In Latin America, local payment methods like Pix in Brazil dominate, yet these are recent evolutions. A truly international payment solution was non-existent.

By enabling companies to tap local payment networks easily, the company has become one of the largest tech companies in the region. It is hard to understate the reach of the cross-border payment platform. [In 2024, the company processed $6.5 billion in total payment volume (TPV) in Q3 alone.

Here are three unique approaches to how they scaled:

1. Born Global: Market Size Constraints Create Entrepreneurship Necessity

Starting a company with a global approach creates meaningful challenges. In fintech, dealing with diverse regulation and payment systems adds more complexity to the equation.

But, starting from a small market, like Uruguay, market size is an important consideration. Ambitious entrepreneurs must think beyond their borders from the start. For dLocal, internationalization was not a strategy but a necessity. “We launched in Brazil before Uruguay,” said dLocal’s founder Sergio. This mindset led the company to scale rapidly, launching in five countries before addressing its home market. “It forces you to think internationally if you have ambition.”

2. Culture Over Geography: Building a Unified Global Team

Beyond operational complexities, scaling successfully in more than one continent requires a cohesive culture. For dLocal, this was possible through a mix of leadership by example and encouraging geographic mobility.

“We love it when people move geographically,” shared Sergio. “It helps us understand the challenges of working in another geography, diffuse the culture, and transmit how we like things done.” By embedding employees from different regions into new markets, the company fostered cross-cultural understanding while maintaining its core value. Sergio himself had a global background and worked across multiple markets, which set the stage for his own experience.

Today, dLocal’s 1,100 employees operate across South America, Africa, and Asia, sharing a common ethos despite their diverse backgrounds. This culture of “making things happen” and putting the customer first has been crucial in uniting the team.

When reflecting on the potential path of acquisitions to grow geographically, Sergio argued that this strategy be used only for very specific cases. “Integrations are a big challenge”. The bar for them is high. Sergio believes it has been an advantage in competing with companies that grew through acquisitions. Usually, the M&A playbook leads to companies offering different APIs, and integrations for every country, ultimately lacking product consistency, resulting in poor customer service. By contrast, dLocal offers a single product experience.

3. Turning Compliance into a Competitive Advantage

Operating in fintech across emerging markets is notoriously complex when it comes to regulation - with varied rules around currency flows, taxes, and cross-border payments. Rather than treating compliance as a hurdle, dLocal has used it to build trust and a defensible moat.

“We act as a cross-pollination sector of regulation,” explained Sergio. “We show regulators how Brazil handles this, or Nigeria, or Mexico.” This proactive engagement in every new market since the early beginning of the company has allowed dLocal to align with local regulators while helping shape the emerging regulatory frameworks.

Sergio believes the regulatory global landscape will continue to become more complex. Regions like the European Union are not only issuing new compliance requirements for next year, but are already setting terms for subsequent years, placing an ever-growing burden on fintech players. A lot of emerging markets may follow this trend. “It will become harder for newcomers to become compliant.” Even incumbents may struggle to adjust to consistently changing regulatory frameworks. If this trend continues, fintechs will continue to be able to build moats through deeper understanding of regulatory differences.

What to take away from dLocal's co-founder, Co-President and Chief Strategy Officer Sergio Fogel

dLocal’s journey offers a fresh approach to achieving international scale from an emerging market perspective. By being born global, solving real pain points, fostering a unified culture, leveraging regulation strategically, and scaling with a consistent offer, the company has created a playbook that goes beyond Silicon Valley norms.

For entrepreneurs around the world, dLocal’s story serves as a reminder that innovation doesn’t have to follow the Valley’s rules—it can thrive anywhere with the right mindset and approach.