dLocal

dLocal: Rewiring Global Commerce Through Local Payments

For decades, global digital commerce has been built on infrastructure designed for a narrow slice of the world. International cards, standardized rails, and one-size-fits-all payment models worked well in developed markets—but left billions of consumers in emerging economies underserved. As growth increasingly shifts to the Global South, this imbalance has become impossible to ignore. The future of commerce depends not on forcing global standards everywhere, but on embracing local realities at scale.

This is the problem dLocal was built to solve.

Today, dLocal connects global companies with consumers across more than 40 high-growth markets, enabling over 900 local payment methods through a single API, contract, and support model. In 2024 alone, the company processed US$26 billion in transactions, empowering 338 million people to pay in their local currency using the methods they trust. In doing so, dLocal has quietly become one of the most important infrastructure players rewiring how global businesses expand into emerging markets.

A Mission Rooted in Access

At its core, dLocal’s mission is about access—connecting global merchants with the billions of consumers who have long been excluded from digital commerce simply because they do not use international cards. From Pix in Brazil and UPI in India to mobile money, digital wallets, and bank transfers across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, local payment methods are how people actually transact.

The company’s One dLocal model was designed to make this complexity disappear for merchants. Instead of managing fragmented integrations, evolving regulations, and hundreds of local preferences, global companies can unlock local payments everywhere through one relationship. What dLocal offers is not just acceptance—it is reach, conversion, and trust in markets where growth is accelerating fastest.

Built for Local Realities, Scaled for the World

Founded in 2016, dLocal emerged from a clear insight: global infrastructure was not designed for local rails. The company began in Brazil, building support for boleto bancário—a widely used but operationally complex local payment method. Rather than treating this as an edge case, dLocal treated it as the blueprint.

That local-first mindset shaped the company’s expansion across Latin America, and by 2019, dLocal had extended its footprint into Africa and Asia, achieving true multi-regional coverage. In 2020, the company became Uruguay’s first unicorn, and in June 2021, it listed on Nasdaq—milestones that underscored both momentum and durability.

What distinguishes dLocal’s growth is not speed alone, but consistency: each new market is built with local licenses, partnerships, and operational expertise, ensuring that scale does not come at the expense of reliability or compliance.

Innovation at the Edge of Global Commerce

Consumer behavior in emerging markets evolves faster than legacy payment infrastructure can adapt. There are now more than 900 distinct local payment methods globally, and that number continues to grow. As emerging economies are expected to generate 65% of global economic growth by 2035—driven by young, digital-first populations—the need for an intermediary layer that harmonizes this complexity has become essential.

dLocal has moved beyond simply enabling payments to actively unlocking merchant growth through targeted innovation.

In 2025, this focus has translated into several category-defining initiatives:

• BNPL Fuse, a buy-now-pay-later network designed for emerging markets, aggregates multiple local providers behind one API. It standardizes installment flows, giving merchants access to BNPL capabilities across countries without taking on credit risk.
• SmartPix in Brazil builds on Pix innovations such as Pix Automático and Pix with Biometrics. By integrating with Brazil’s Open Finance framework, dLocal enables smoother recurring payment experiences—moving beyond one-off transactions to long-term customer relationships.
• Stablecoin-native settlement, enabled through BVNK, reduces cost and time-to-cash in markets where traditional repatriation is slow or complex. In late 2025, dLocal partnered with Félix to power WhatsApp-based remittances across Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador—converting USDC into local currency deposited directly into bank accounts.

The result is tangible: higher conversion, faster settlement, and more inclusive access for both merchants and consumers.

Proof at Scale

dLocal’s impact is best understood through its scale and adoption:

• Coverage across 40+ markets with 900+ local payment methods spanning cash, wallets, cards, and instant transfers.
• US$26 billion processed in 2024, enabling 338 million people to transact digitally.
• Trusted by some of the world’s most sophisticated companies across commerce, digital services, mobility, and entertainment.

Beyond metrics, local-currency payments unlock participation. Consumers without international cards gain access to streaming platforms, mobility services, gaming, travel, and digital work opportunities. In high-remittance corridors, partnerships like Félix demonstrate how infrastructure can directly improve daily life—moving money from a WhatsApp message to a local bank account in minutes.

Leadership and a Local-First Culture

In 2023, dLocal appointed Pedro Arnt as CEO, bringing decades of experience building large-scale payment infrastructure from his leadership tenure at Mercado Libre. Under his leadership, dLocal has doubled down on disciplined execution, local-first operations, and an unwavering focus on merchant outcomes.

The company’s leadership philosophy emphasizes operating close to the ground—hiring locally, maintaining decentralized commercial teams, and tailoring solutions market by market. This approach is reflected in dLocal’s culture, anchored by what it calls the dLocal Drive: a bias toward action, accountability, and solving hard problems quickly.

With more than 1,000 professionals representing over 30 nationalities and a presence across 49 markets, dLocal gives global merchants something rare in cross-border commerce: a home-court advantage everywhere. A net revenue retention rate of 150% underscores that once merchants partner with dLocal, they deepen the relationship as more payment flows move onto the platform.

Navigating a Rapidly Evolving Industry

The payments landscape in emerging markets is becoming more complex, not less. Expect more local rails, more instant payments, more wallets, and faster-moving regulation—often ahead of global standards. At the same time, stablecoins and tokenized assets are beginning to complement traditional networks where they deliver real advantages in settlement and remittances.

dLocal’s strategy is pragmatic rather than speculative. The company adopts new technologies only where they solve concrete merchant problems—reducing cost, accelerating settlement, or expanding access—while maintaining compliance and trust.

What Comes Next

Looking ahead, dLocal is focused on deepening the One dLocal platform: a single integration that supports pay-ins, payouts, platforms, and invoice collection, continuously optimized for conversion, fraud prevention, and regulatory compliance.

Expansion will continue method-by-method and market-by-market, aligned with merchant roadmaps and reinforced by stronger licenses, bank partnerships, and regulatory expertise. At the same time, dLocal is building category-defining products where local realities demand them—from BNPL orchestration to stored credentials on instant rails and targeted blockchain use cases tied directly to merchant outcomes.

Why dLocal Is Rewiring the Future

dLocal’s leadership in emerging markets is defined by three enduring strengths. First, breadth and depth: unmatched coverage of local payment methods across high-growth regions, delivered through a single relationship that works in practice. Second, a merchant growth engine that helps global companies expand faster, convert more users, and settle funds efficiently. And third, a commitment to democratizing access—ensuring that when consumers can pay locally, they can fully participate in the digital economy.

By making the complex simple, dLocal is not just enabling transactions—it is enabling growth where the future is being built. One local payment at a time.