Ualá levanta US$195 millones en Series F: Pierpaolo Barbieri responde a todo

We are very confident in how we are going and we expect to reach consolidated profitability in 2027, which was always the plan in all geographies. That should allow us to keep scaling and eventually reach a stock listing at some moment, but I don't have a timeline for that. We want to be profitable, we want to be bigger, and we have great investors like Alliance, Pershing Square, Stone Ridge, Tencent, and Soros who have been supporting us to keep growing this dream and get there.

Obviously, last year there was a surge in delinquency across the entire financial system. That has been discussed, but if we apply a policy similar to that of the banks, our numbers are much closer to traditional Argentine banks. The issue is how it is reported and the characteristics of the fintech-to-bank transformation make the numbers appear higher than they actually are.

Pier, a pleasure to be here. Thanks, Fran.

Well, we just closed an investment round to further boost Ualá's growth, to create more products and services. Our goal from day one has been to bring financial services to the 21st century in Latin America. Today we have more than 11 million clients. We have a complete offering that operates directly from banks in all geographies where we operate, and that allows us to build an ecosystem of products and services that increasingly meet more financial needs of the user. What started with payments and a card today has the whole world of credit, investments, collections, and now insurance, which is something we just launched a month ago. We are very happy to be able to offer, I believe, the best digital insurance product in Argentina. That will give us the possibility of continuing to grow more and more users. More than 20% of Argentina already has their account, and that allows us to make better products and services at a lower cost with lower commissions because we have a 100% digital structure, and this money allows us to grow faster and reach our objectives.

Yes, for us, Mexico is a major focus. We have a bank in Mexico. We have more than 2 million clients just in Mexico. We have been growing since we got the banking license, more than 7% month-over-month in users we have in Mexico, and that allows us to offer more and more products and services. We have a debit card, we have the best yield of any bank in Mexico, which fortunately has the IPAB insurance, which is the FDIC insurance in the United States or SEDESA in Argentina. That lets everyone know that their money at Ualá is safe, unlike an unregulated entity. And then we have built a credit card, a secured credit card that allows building credit history, because in Mexico only banks can create credit history, unregulated entities cannot. And then we launched a bunch of things, like for example, the best term deposit experience that came out a couple of months ago, and now we are very close to launching two more business verticals in Mexico this year, with the focus of bringing more and more clients to a 100% digital structure that allows you to load your money in cash. We have more than 15,000 places in Mexico where you can load your money in cash, and fortunately we also have live loading which allows you to manage your money, save, invest, spend, get yield, and have a credit history all in the same place.

It is impossible to give you a date because obviously every month people join and every month the results are different by geography. Today we already have more than 11 million clients across the entire region. Obviously, we started much earlier in Argentina, we got the bank much earlier in Argentina, which was the process of buying Willow Bank that culminated around 2023, 2024. Today we already have all of Ualá's operations in the bank, which took time because we had built the entire fintech side and eventually moved it to the bank side. We can talk more about that, but you know the regulation. Operating as a bank requires certain levels of compliance, KYC, AML, and certain processes that operating as a fintech does not have. That is a process that in Mexico also took time. We were the first digital player to have a banking license in Mexico, and that allows us to keep growing now with more speed, and we aim to be profitable in Mexico by the end of 2027. So, that is the short-term objective, and every month we add tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands, of people to the Mexico ecosystem to keep growing Ualá and to give all of them a better product. Remember that Mexico is a market and a place where there is a lot of competition, but there is also a tremendous opportunity because there are more than 50, 60, 70 million people who do not have credit history, who still operate in cash, who do not have access to protect themselves from inflation, which is not zero anywhere in the world, so they have no yield on their accounts, and we offer an open product for everyone that I believe is superior from a banking entity that allows us to do a bunch of things like payroll portability that others cannot do.

We don't talk about what hasn't launched. Today our focus is on Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia, where we have the operations, where we have the banks, and we keep working. Obviously, scaling internationally requires a lot of work, especially because we believe that to win you have to have all the financial services and be able to offer the user not just a single product, which can be a debit card with digital onboarding, which is how we started, but you also have to offer them investments, you have to offer them credit, you have to offer them collections, and now also offer them insurance. We believe that this deepening improves the ARPU, which is the average revenue per user, and allows us to have more and more of the client's life, which also improves one of the most important things we have at Ualá, which is the Ualá Score that allows you to grow in your ability to have credit limits and better rates as you use more products from the ecosystem.

We don't talk about what hasn't launched, that's why I tell you we are going to launch two business verticals in Mexico this year. We have a bunch of projects in the pipeline. We just launched insurance in Argentina literally a month and a half ago. I prefer to talk about that because in Argentina only 3% or 4% of people have life insurance. We launched an experience where in less than 45 seconds you can have insurance that literally starts at 3,000 pesos per month. So, for half the cost of a monthly Spotify subscription or a third of the cost of Netflix, which has now gone up quite a bit, you can have life insurance that protects you and your family against a calamity. We built it 100% digital with our partners who are Allianz, the largest insurer in the world, and also a great technology partner that led this investment round, in fact. So, in 45 seconds you can have life insurance for you and your family that is automatically debited from your account, has no intermediaries, has live support, and has incredible discounts and benefits that go much further than just life insurance. For us, that is a revolutionary product because the intelligence of the product also recommends based on your age, your habits, and a couple of your data points taken directly from your profile, what type of insurance you can have. So, it starts at 3,000 pesos per month or it can recommend one of 10,000 pesos per month or one of 20,000 pesos per month if you have a big family and want important insurance. And this week we are also launching the personal accident insurance product, which is super important for people who work independently. You know as well as I do that in Argentina there are a lot of workers who are not in an employment relationship. All those people who work should have insurance in case something happens to them. It is a culture that does not exist in Argentina and Latin America, and that is why we built it from scratch with Allianz, and it is the only product in Argentina that is 100% digital, without intermediaries. And who is the winner of that, Fran? The winner is the user who goes from paying 30,000 per month to paying 10,000 and doing it from a 100% digital, transparent, and super easy place.

Ualá's position, as always, is that we want the formalization of the economy. One of the great problems of Argentina, and this has been said by Peronist governments, by the PRO government, by the Milei government, is that we have more than one GDP outside the country. If that money is inside the country, because there is confidence in the country, in the country's rules, in the country's government, and in the institutions we have, that money is available for investment, for the creation of new businesses, for the creation of new companies and new jobs. And as I always say, competition elevates. So, we want that to exist because we have a historically low investment rate, I say it as a historian, compared to other countries in the region. This is obviously a consequence of episodes like 2001 where people lost faith in the banking system and the financial system of their country. So they prefer to have the money offshore. Anything that helps from the government to have that money declared in the country, have confidence, and invest in the financial system, I am in favor. Why? Because it benefits all of us with more investment. That investment translates into more jobs, more companies, more competition, a win for the user. If it is outside, it benefits other financial markets. So, I am not an expert in anti-money laundering rules, I am not an expert in compliance, although I have a spectacular compliance team that has managed to digitalize the experience to make it easier at Ualá than anywhere else, but we believe it is super important that this money is in Argentina, and I believe the entire political spectrum has to support the continuity of policies that allow this money to trust the country's financial system and therefore help our development. For example, if that money is here, not talking about Ualá, it can finance the bonds of YPF or the bonds of Pampa Energía, which helps us develop Vaca Muerta, or the bonds of a competitor of mine like Banco Macro. It would be good if that happened. Instead, if it is in the financial system of Spain, it helps finance the bonds of Telefónica, and that is different, although Telefónica also operates in the country, but I mean, Intesa Sanpaolo in Italy helps finance investment projects in other countries that create jobs and opportunities in other countries. So, I believe we all have to support that money being here, that it is here, that it pays taxes, and that it is part of the formal system.

Well, the truth is many things. The first thing one learns leading a company is humility. One thinks they know things and then, as a great philosopher of war said, no plan survives contact with the enemy. Obviously, we chose to play a difficult match against great competitors who are very large regionally and globally, and we decided to do it in a country like Argentina because I believe in the country, I believe in creating jobs in my country, I believe in solving my country's problems and then exporting that talent, that technology to other countries like Mexico and Colombia. I am very proud of the path. I'm not saying it has been easy. There have been very hard moments and very good ones. I believe that in difficult moments one has to remember what one of our most important investors, Baupost, always says: 'You have to make a little progress every day when you are in difficult moments.' And in incredible moments, like announcing a round of this size for Argentina, investment in an Argentine company expanding in Latin America, you also have to remember the difficulties of the bad moments to keep going and have humility above all. I believe it is difficult to navigate the macroeconomy, especially when we are creating something new and something in the financial system. I don't have to explain to you the volatility of the financial system in Latin America in general, but in Argentina in particular. And when we launched, we launched with an Argentina with a country risk of around 300 basis points. Then in 2018 there was the financial crisis, in 2019 the election and the impact of the PASO. I will never forget when several investors called me the day after the PASO to explain to them what had happened with the Argentine market and a Central Bank press conference with different officials. Correct. In 2020 came the pandemic, in 2021 came the boom after the pandemic and inflation, in 2022 the tech winter, and so on. So, it is challenging to work in Latin America, it is challenging to work in Argentina, but the truth is that building it is the pride of my life, and I am glad we have a team so committed to the mission, which continues to be creating better financial products for everyone.

Well, competition elevates. We have focus, we obviously have fewer resources than a Mercado Libre or a Nubank that were already unicorns when we were born. In fact, Mercado Libre had been a unicorn for 15 years when we were born. It is an honor that they put us in the same sentence as them. They are some of the best companies in the world, and it is an honor that they are Latin American. Obviously, competing is not easy, but I believe competition elevates. Our value proposition is different. We operate as a bank in Argentina, the rest do not. We operate as a bank in Mexico, the rest do not. Now Revolut just got its license after 6 years. It is one of its 50 countries. Perfect. We believe we can have our own niche, we have our own strategy, and we have our own local knowledge that allows us to make more products and services for more people, and we believe we know how to navigate the vicissitudes of Latin America because we come from here. So, I believe that positions us as a player. Monopolies do not exist in financial services or banking anywhere in the world. We have great investors, many we share, in fact, with Revolut, and it is an honor that they believe in us to build one of the winners of this space.

I want to come to win. I don't believe Ualá is a hostile place, but it is obsessed with winning. We have a very committed team. I firmly believe in having around me people who I think are better than me. I believe in horizontality and transparency, in good times and in bad times. We have gone through difficult moments, we have gone through very hard macroeconomic changes, and one has to be transparent with the team. I believe we have people who have been here since the beginning, who already have more than 8 years at Ualá with me building side by side. I believe in a philosophy where many of Ualá's employees and workers are shareholders with me pro rata. So, we have an absolute alignment of interests, just as I have an absolute alignment of interests with the investors. I don't believe in having something like an SEO that the rest don't have. So, that alignment is born from a culture of excellence, horizontality, and transparency with the good and the bad.

Well, obviously we are in a scaling period, we still do not have consolidated profitability. Why? Because we keep scaling in countries like Mexico and Colombia. In Argentina we have already been profitable, although last year the rate volatility and the growth in delinquency affected all financial institutions in the country. You saw the results of Mercado Libre, you saw the results of Galicia, of Macro, of Supervielle, of everyone. We are not immune to that reality. But we firmly believe in what we are building, which is an ecosystem that is radically more efficient to operate than the rest of the financial entities, with many users, with a growing average revenue per user, and with a scale that now allows us the operating leverage that others cannot have. So, we are very confident in how we are going and we expect to reach consolidated profitability in 2027, which was always the plan in all geographies, and that should allow us to keep scaling and eventually reach a stock listing at some moment, but I don't have a timeline for that. Obviously, you have to navigate the macroeconomy of Latin America, and there are countries that are more stable than others, with more stable variables than others, and that allows the growth or not of credit portfolios depending on the macro.

Obviously, we have to be much bigger, we have to achieve net profitability because I believe Nubank achieved that IPO not profitable and focused almost a decade on Brazil in a context like 2001 where global rates were zero. It was a very different context. Nubank is one of the most valued companies in the world, and the truth is they have built something spectacular, but we are still far from that. In fact, it is something I have spoken with David about, who besides being a reference is a friend. One thing is growing in Brazil, where there are IPOs all the time, and another thing is growing from Argentina, where we haven't had an IPO in New York of an Argentine company in almost a decade. So, we cannot deny the differences between being born in Brazil and being born in Argentina. But of course, we want a larger scale that we still don't have, and we want consolidated profitability and geographic diversification, which is why we continue to bet on the growth of Mexico and Colombia. Obviously, if we had wanted to be an Argentine company and only Argentina, we would have reached the break-even point much earlier and we would have raised or required much less capital than Nubank or Revolut to get where we are. In fact, Nubank raised more than $4 billion before the IPO, and I believe Revolut is still private but is already at $20-something billion. So, those are scale differences that also speak to the difference in the markets where they operate, because again, let's not compare the capital available in a fintech market like the United States, Brazil, or the United Kingdom where Revolut was born to what is available in Argentina. I remember that in 2019, 95% of all venture capital in Argentina was Ualá's round. So, those differences obviously and the size of the markets affect scalability, but well, that also creates opportunities for us because we can do things that others can't and in a single application have a bunch of things that in another country or geography would be different applications. Today we have a complete league and a complete bank in Argentina that allows us to do official dollar, MEP dollar, stocks, bonds, CDs, term deposits, all in one. And that is something that not even Mercado Libre can do in Argentina. Why? Because it doesn't have a banking license. So it can't offer you a term deposit, it can't offer you an interest-bearing account, which as we were talking about before, is one of the great things Ualá brings you. The more you use it in each geography, the more return we give you, and that is something very difficult to build that takes a long time, and giving it scale also takes time. So we want to be profitable, we want to be bigger, and we have great investors like Allianz, Pershing Square, Stone Ridge, Tencent, and Soros who have been supporting us to keep growing this dream and get there.