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10 Innovation Excellence Awards 2021

U-Payments - Providing high-quality, low-cost financial products to everyone

U-Payments - Providing high-quality, low-cost financial products to everyone

As the world is going through a paradigm shift of work culture, companies are looking to re-innovate. And with this comes a need for faster and more secure payment systems which are developed for supporting the people. Open Banking is the first step towards genuinely inclusive, digital, and personalized banking. U-Payment is one such company that aims to revolutionize the payment industry with its well-though and innovative payment services. We interviewed the founders of the company, Paulo Paulek, and Gabriel Vozza, to know more about the company and the services. Here are a few excerpts of the interview:

What makes your services so relevant in today’s digital age?

Four current and potential clients, mastering digital processes in payment methods, generating their own ecosystems, and creating value, is talking about survival, progress, or death. The demand for social transparency, traceability in financial processes, and efficiency in business processes are some of the critical success factors in our company.

How do you maintain excellence while delivering your services?

We are totally committed to working with our clients on a daily basis. We are highly involved with them in the process. So, we visualize the opportunities for improvement first-hand. Our culture is to do our best, go after a dream, and we don’t negotiate it. Our results speak of us, and we are what we do. In addition, we have a strategic agreement with different flags in all of LATAM, in addition to the fact that our products have international security standards PCI-DSS, ISAE-3402, and SAT.

What makes your services an inclusive and accessible option for all?

Fundamentally, because we understand the industry and through our treatment of technology as a valuable tool, in a larger chain, we always offer our sincere and complete vision and the reflective vision that we share with our clients. Then, we offer turnkey services so that our clients can focus on their business and do not have to assume initial mistakes.

Finally, by offering all the necessary services, from PM to processing, consulting, products, and back-office services, we understand it is a significant added value. We develop digital and physical payments ecosystems. Our digital solutions work from mid-range smartphones. Our developments include UI and UX research so that they are possible to use by all people. We develop all our products in such a way that they are very low cost or free for the end-user and cost according to the depth of development for our clients, ensuring in all cases security standards higher than the international minimum.

Could you tell us about Open Banking?

Open Banking returns their information to people. As owners of their own data, they will decide with whom to share it to be rewarded for it. In addition, companies will be able to make a better offer of products and services, personalizing the offer for people. People will be able to select the best offer on the products they want to obtain, not the available offer of what companies want to sell.

Open Banking is the first step towards truly inclusive, digital, and personalized banking. The information is in the power of its owners, “the people,” and it is the responsibility of the market to adapt and react to this paradigm shift. Open banking is about transparency; users get rewarded for sharing their information and Fintechs with even better product development and offers.

How can Open Finance help the fintech companies?

Open Finance, Open Infrastructure in general, is a tool or technology that will allow consumers to put the alternatives of products or services that best satisfy them. And Fintech or whoever interprets it best will give them the opportunity to generate activities on that concept. With an amazing particularity, there will be no owners—only people with access. People own their information in all cases; they will authorize the use of their data so that Fintech companies can develop even better work than they already do, focused on what each person needs, not what companies want to offer. Fintech companies specializing in a financial services function may specialize even more since the information they will receive from users is specific to develop a personalized offer for each of them. Thus, the Fintech product is better targeted, and users are rewarded for their information.

What does innovation mean to you, and how do you deliver it through your services?  

For U-Payments, innovation is about doing what is already being done but faster, better, with less friction, and economical. And it arises from the thorough understanding of the processes, their ecosystems, the available offer, and being close to the actual or potential, current or future customers. Of course, there is being able to turn the above into a value proposition. And you have to add that talent as part of the innovation. It is a leap of faith; it is a leap into the future.

How important are partnerships for you?

Partnerships are a central aspect for our company because we do not have all the skills, but we do have the capabilities to achieve them and take on joint challenges as our own. Then, the partnerships developed are also an indicator of the potential that the market sees in us, our personal character, and the desire to share time and effort with a common goal.

What are the current challenges of being in the payments segment? How are you tackling them?

Industry dynamics have turned phenomenal. Alternatives often seem to be superior at every moment, and it is necessary to be able to distinguish which ones have a future and which ones don’t. We must focus on economic concentration through merger & acquisition of the prominent local players, based on resources, concentrate positions.

There is a shortage of qualified and empowered human resources. The way we have found to face the dynamics is to surround ourselves with the best team we can have, challenge ourselves every day, and enjoy each day with the best communication we can do. And the evolution of the regulatory market, not always clear, not always timely.

How has the pandemic affected the company?

The pandemic has accelerated the times of the evolution of the industry. Companies that had an advantage may not have the same due to changing work culture. The big players had to adapt quickly, while the new players are putting their best to test their services and products to serve people best. However, our company was not affected by its way of working. U-Payments is a believer in its people. We know that our workers are of the highest level, because of this they were not and are not required to work in person. The company operates through goals (with deadlines), being irrelevant where they do their work, but keep being always very important to do it in the best possible way.

What is your vision for the future? Do you have anything new and ready for launch? Are you planning to launch your services in more countries this year?

We see society in the short and medium-term, more impoverished, violent, and with the need to be listened to and respected and the need to recover its previous status. Those who are frank, loyal, and know-how to respect unsatisfied basic needs from their hearts will make way for society’s future.

The competition is for the best services at the right price in a more transparent and much more dynamic environment. And in this circumstance, we are entering the regulated market in Chile and in developing regional projects with comprehensive offers that combine the turnkey technological solution with financial assistance through our partners. Likewise, in Argentina, the product underway has us very expectant.

About the Founders

Paulo Paulek (Chief Executive Officer) and Gabriel Vozza (Chief Business Officer)

Paulo and Gabriel, two friends sharing a coffee, decided to work together to achieve the dream of quality Financial Inclusion for everyone. This is how U-Payments was born with the aim of becoming the best company in physical and digital means of payment, to provide access to high-quality, low-cost financial products to all people.

“We implement products through consulting and advice, always supporting and participating in the growth of our clients.”


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