In the next 18 months alone, we are going to invest an additional 150 million dollars in growth. Since we already have a positive gross margin in Argentina, most of these funds will be destined to grow in Mexico and Colombia,” Barbieri, 35, told Reuters.
Ualá bought the Argentine digital banking company Wilobank this year and invested 80 million dollars to operate in Colombia, after closing an investment round for 350 million dollars in 2021 and acquiring the Mexican bank ABC Capital.
“In a market context where others are cutting investment, we are expanding investment because we already have the capital,” explained the executive president in the simple and modern offices of Ualá in Palermo, a traditional neighborhood converted into a gastronomic hub and tourist destination. from Buenos Aires.
“The idea is to continue growing in the financial ecosystem to offer a range of financial products that range from debit cards to loans, investments, insurance,” he added.
The company, which has already reached 15% of Argentines, aspires to achieve a positive gross margin also in Mexico and Colombia in the coming years.
Major investors in Ualá include China’s Tencent Holdings 0700.HK and SoftBank 9984.T, the Japanese tech giant.
“Latin America is 20% digitized against 50% in Europe and 70% in China. I know that digitization will continue: Ualá is a path of digitization for the economies of Latin America” Barbieri said.
“It seems to me a great debt of the democracies of Latin America that we have so many people outside the system. In 10 years there will be no people outside the financial system,” concluded the executive.
