In his early 30s, Guillermo Lopez walked into finance as an outsider. “Nobody was giving me a chance in finance because I was an engineer,” he tells us. Then a boss took “a risk” and moved him into a finance role—partly because he was “good with numbers,” and partly because his consulting background meant he could be put “in front of…external parties,” Lopez tells us.
That entry point set the tone for how he builds a career: intentionally and with breadth. At American Express, he moved across businesses and finance roles on purpose, because “it’s important to get breath, especially if you’re thinking about a CFO,” he tells us. Over time, he came to describe himself as “very data driven”—the “non emotional part of the decision making,” he tells us—while also learning to make decisions with “imperfect information” in global roles, he tells us.
Read MoreA later inflection arrived after Visa acquired Tink. Lopez became “the grown up” Visa sent to Stockholm, commuting from London each week, he tells us. The environment was smaller, faster, and short on big-company support. It was “daunting,” he tells us, but it taught him to move quickly, focus on priorities, and take bigger career risks.
That same blend—speed and discipline—shows up in his definition of finance’s strategic role: being embedded in investment and capital-allocation decisions with data in hand, Lopez tells us.
His proof point comes from an earlier chapter. In an international CFO role, he helped reframe how a business allocated “close to $700 million a year,” building ROI insights that pointed to “$30 million more of revenue every year,” he tells us.
Made Possible By
CFOTL: Want to find out now about this company and this opportunity, dLocal. Tell us about the company. What are its offerings, and what sets it apart?
Lopez: Let me explain it, because many of your listeners are not experts in payments. dLocal is a Uruguayan company founded about 10 years ago by two entrepreneurs, Sergio Fogel and Andrés Bzurovski, with the help of co-founder Sebastián Kanovich. What we do is help large global companies offer their products and services—and get paid and pay—in emerging markets. Thanks to dLocal, you can buy services on Temu, Shein, or Amazon, or Uber can pay its drivers in countries like South Africa, Argentina, or Uruguay.
ReadWe’re present in almost 50 countries. We are essentially experts in payments in the Global South. Within the open-banking ecosystem, that’s a very specific niche. We offer the largest coverage in terms of payment methods—from global credit card networks to alternative and fully local payment solutions. We also have a strong merchant-first mentality, with deep relationships with global merchants. What we really do for them is solve complexity—compliance, settlement, FX exposure, and tax requirements—and the brands in our portfolio validate that we do this very well.
CFOTL: To compete in those far-flung geographies—what you called the Global South—what’s structurally different? You’ve mentioned compliance and infrastructure, which sounds expensive. How are you able to do this and remain cost-competitive?
Lopez: The first thing is that we put the merchant first. We try, as much as we can, to solve what our clients are trying to achieve. If they want to open a new market, we ask, “How do we help them do this?”—and we do it at speed. That speed is embedded in the culture of the company. I come from large organizations, and getting back to being client-first and fast is very difficult at scale. dLocal is 10 years old and hasn’t lost that.
Now, you’re right—we deal with a lot of complexity. We need to be very strong on compliance and regulation, on money movement and FX. Over time, as our presence and volumes grow, we start to benefit from scale. At the end of the day, we’re a payments business, so operating leverage starts to materialize. In some markets we already see that; in others we will. That’s the beauty of the business model.
dLocal | www.dlocal.com | London