Will it work in Brazil?
Launch HN: Atrato (YC W21) – Credit Card Alternative for Latin America
51–60 of 69 posts
Re: Launch HN: Atrato (YC W21) – Credit Card Alternative for Latin America
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lack of financial literacy and no acquisitive power + informal economy. Banks in Latam invest a lot in Credit Card penetration but they only can offer credit to people who are already embeded into the financial system through formalized payroll. Many people in Latam aren't part of a payroll and make their living from the informal economy. Even if those people have the acquisitive power, Banks will never extend them a…
Got it, that's interesting - also interesting to see Rappi, which definitely does have more data (for its users at least) on spending habits and earning, even in the informal economy launching a card. I wonder if there'll be more of that for companies like Uber/Taxify that specialize in informal labor but serve as a jobs market issuing their own local credit lines in partnership with financial institutions
Theres a company called Heru. They do all kinds of services for gig workers. It is definitely an interesting data-set to underwrite, you can connect to the apps APIs and pull a lot of data of these people and potentially create better financial products for them
Re: Launch HN: Atrato (YC W21) – Credit Card Alternative for Latin America
#53Wow! Great job guys! I've often wondered how this could be solved in Mexico and you guys seem to have found a nice way to do it. I'm curious, but would someone who has a small shop at the mercado be able to use your service? Would this let them compete against Coppel if a consumer want to buy cheaper electronics from the guy across the street? Are these the people you're targeting at all? Your aleados look very estab…
We do want to build for small businesses and merchants. We do actually have many of them, work with a lot of local bike dealers, auto shops, small electronics stores and they are happy they can offer financing to their customers. If they don't have an ecommerce or website we give them a magic link that they can send their customers through WhatsApp/Facebook.
Re: Launch HN: Atrato (YC W21) – Credit Card Alternative for Latin America
#54Wow! Great job guys! I've often wondered how this could be solved in Mexico and you guys seem to have found a nice way to do it. I'm curious, but would someone who has a small shop at the mercado be able to use your service? Would this let them compete against Coppel if a consumer want to buy cheaper electronics from the guy across the street? Are these the people you're targeting at all? Your aleados look very estab…
+1 to this question I'd guess that the strategy is to start with specific vendors or purchases where it's easier to model origination + creditworthiness. I think the open question from my end is whether as a VC-backed business there's an incentive to go downmarket anytime soon or whether it makes more sense to expand across higher-end businesses for the next few years.
Yeah. Something we've discovered is that merchant fraud is more common with smaller businesses, so that's a challenge. There's also a natural concentration of merchants. Like Affirm drives 30% of their revenue just from Peloton. We will see something similar.
Re: Launch HN: Atrato (YC W21) – Credit Card Alternative for Latin America
#55Will it work in Brazil?
We hope it will. At least we will try :) There are some specific things about Brazil that are materially different to our experience but will be exploring other countries
Re: Launch HN: Atrato (YC W21) – Credit Card Alternative for Latin America
#56Is the name related to atrasar , to postpone? Not a criticism at all, because no doubt you are offering choices to people that currently don’t exist, but isn’t 40% APR still insane? Sounds like you do some kind of quick, automated credit scoring. How does that work in Mexico and countries south? Do the big three scourges of the US reach into CA and SA?
Sounds more like "trato" ("treaty" or "treat") but speculating doesn't mean anything
Re: Launch HN: Atrato (YC W21) – Credit Card Alternative for Latin America
#57I was born in Argentina, I understand the pain. People that don't have credit cards is mostly because:
a. they are not in the financial system, meaning they get paid in cash, etc
b. they get paid too little or they have debt so their score is low and therefore they don't get access to a card
Your solution seems to be more suitable for people that can actually access a credit card but they find them "hard" so they can opt for something like your solution.
Curious to hear your take on this.
Re: Launch HN: Atrato (YC W21) – Credit Card Alternative for Latin America
#58Is the name related to atrasar , to postpone? Not a criticism at all, because no doubt you are offering choices to people that currently don’t exist, but isn’t 40% APR still insane? Sounds like you do some kind of quick, automated credit scoring. How does that work in Mexico and countries south? Do the big three scourges of the US reach into CA and SA?
Sounds more like "trato" ("treaty" or "treat") but speculating doesn't mean anything
It is! And also the name comes from the Atrato river
Re: Launch HN: Atrato (YC W21) – Credit Card Alternative for Latin America
#59I was born in Argentina, I understand the pain. People that don't have credit cards is mostly because: a. they are not in the financial system, meaning they get paid in cash, etc b. they get paid too little or they have debt so their score is low and therefore they don't get access to a card Your solution seems to be more suitable for people that can actually access a credit card but they find them "hard" so they can…
In Mexico and other countries in LATAM, there are huge department stores that have built their own banks to give their customers credit to purchase on the store. Combined, these stores have ~20 million customers and are some of the largest banks in Mexico.
Our solution it's focused on these customers, who already have some sort of credit but find paying their purchases on installments easier, more affordable and transparent than getting with a credit card.
We are enabling other merchant that aren't as big or don't having the ability to offer financing to offer this option to the customers.
Re: Launch HN: Atrato (YC W21) – Credit Card Alternative for Latin America
#60Will it work in Brazil?
We hope it will. At least we will try :) There are some specific things about Brazil that are materially different to our experience but will be exploring other countries
Thats why I asked actually. I did some startup business in Brazil. The economy was very vibrant and responded really well to new services.* However their banking system and payment systems were antiquated and closet. So have your eyes set on disrupting PAGSEGURO.
* and also so many great people