MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay: “Unicorn” dLocal eyes Wall Street and new Ford plant offers around 200 jobs to produce

dLocal has branches in 29 countries worldwide

Uruguay's first “unicorn” (an emerging technology-based company worth over US $ 1 billion) local is reportedly planning to land on Wall Street, according to Bloomberg.

The company “is working with banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co. on a listing that could occur as soon as this year,” according to one of the sources cited by Bloomberg. The company had obtained a valuation of US $ 5 billion, in a recent investment round.

The area of expertise for local is electronic payment services. Last week it began operating in Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam and has branches also in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

dLocal's customers are primarily US or European companies that want to offer their services in Latin America or Asia. “If they process payments directly, they can only do so through an international card, but with dLocal they can benefit from local payment methods and thus access 100% of the population,” explained product vice president Rodrigo Sanchez.

The company started with four employees and now has more than 100 employees and around 400 customers worldwide. Forbes business magazine chose it as one of the platforms to try in 2017; the only one selected from Uruguay. Some of its clients include Wix, Avast, GoDaddy, Uber, and Sony.

Ford's investment in Uruguay

But while some developments are still hypothetical, the firms Ford and Nordex, have announced an investment worth 50 million dollars for the production of the Ford Transit model in their new plant in Uruguay.

The new entrepreneurship means job openings for auto assembly operators, logistics, welding, quality control, cleaning, elevator operators, auto paint process operators and electromechanical technicians, generating 200 direct jobs as well as additional indirect work opportunities.

The Uruguayan plant of the US automaker will make Ford Transit trucks. Nordex is Ford's local partner which until now works with Citroen and Peugeot.

It is expected that by the second half of 2021, the plant will be able to supply the first units to the domestic market which are so far being imported.