DLocal Limited (DLO)

Cómo genera ingresos

dLocal earns a fee on each transaction it processes, so revenue tracks total payment volume multiplied by an average take rate. The fee is typically a percentage of the amount processed, sometimes plus a fixed component, and it varies widely by country, by payment method and by merchant: cross-border flows (where dLocal also converts currency and moves money out of the country) carry a higher take rate than local-to-local flows, where the merchant already holds a local entity and dLocal only processes domestic payments. Because dLocal pays away a large part of that fee to local acquirers, banks and payment-method providers, gross profit — not revenue — is the number management steers by; in 2025 revenue grew 47% while gross profit grew 37%, meaning the average margin per dollar processed kept compressing as volume mix shifted toward large, lower-priced merchants and local-to-local business. There is no subscription or licence line: essentially all revenue is volume-based and repeats only as long as merchants keep routing payments through the platform. The 20-F does not disclose a numerical split of revenue between cross-border and local-to-local or between individual countries.

What is genuinely hard to copy is not the software but the regulatory and banking plumbing behind it: payment licences and registrations in dozens of emerging markets, local bank relationships, settlement accounts, tax and anti-money-laundering compliance in each jurisdiction, and hundreds of individually negotiated integrations with local payment methods. A global merchant that wanted to replicate this would have to repeat the work country by country, which is why a single contract and a single integration have value. The advantage looks narrow rather than wide: dLocal's own filing describes substantial and increasingly intense competition, from global processors moving into emerging markets and from strong local players, and the continuing gap between revenue growth and gross-profit growth shows that pricing power is limited. Large merchants routinely connect to more than one provider and can shift volume between them, and the spread of instant local rails such as Pix lowers the cost of entry for competitors.

Volume comes from consumer spending in emerging markets on things that are partly discretionary — streaming subscriptions, online shopping, travel, ride-hailing, gaming, advertising bought by merchants — so it softens when local incomes or currencies weaken. Against that, the underlying shift from cash to digital payments in these countries is structural and continues through weak years, and dLocal can also grow by adding merchants, countries and payment methods regardless of the cycle: 2025 volume rose 60% year over year. The more specific sensitivity is not the global cycle but individual country shocks — the company's own commentary points to election-related currency and rate volatility in Argentina and a disrupted then partially recovering Egypt — and to the fact that revenue is earned in dollars on payments made in devaluing local currencies.

Riesgos clave

• A handful of merchants provide most of the revenue — The company discloses that certain large merchants account for a significant share of its revenues: the top ten customers represented 61% of revenues in 2025, and two individual customers each exceeded 10% of revenues. Contracts are generally not exclusive and volume can be re-routed, so the loss of, or a pricing renegotiation with, one of these merchants would be felt immediately.
• Intense competition and pressure on pricing — Item 3.D states that competition is substantial and increasingly intense, and that failure to keep pace with rapid technological change in the payments industry could harm the business. Competitors include far larger global payment companies as well as local specialists in each market.
• Licences and evolving regulation in every country — The company warns that it may not hold, or may be unable to obtain or maintain, the regulatory licences required in the jurisdictions where it operates. Payment, e-money, foreign-exchange and anti-money-laundering rules in emerging markets are complex and change frequently, and losing or failing to obtain a licence can shut down a market.
• Currency devaluation, capital controls and tax complexity — dLocal reports exposure to complex and evolving tax regimes and foreign-exchange regulations, and to currency restrictions and devaluation in the countries where it operates. It holds local balances and converts currency as part of its service, so restrictions on moving money out of a country, or a sharp devaluation, hit both settlement and results.
• Concentration in Latin America and in politically unstable markets — A substantial portion of the end users served are concentrated in Latin America, and the filing flags political, economic, regulatory and social instability, government influence over the economies in which it operates, sovereign credit-rating downgrades, weak infrastructure and internet connectivity, and — in the 2025 filing — the 2026 U.S. military and economic intervention in Venezuela.
• Technology failures and cyberattacks — Interruption or failure of the information technology and communications systems would disrupt payment processing, and the company states it is subject to cyberattacks and may suffer security breaches. It handles payment data and holds merchant funds, so an incident carries both direct losses and reputational damage, and the filing separately notes that the business depends on its reputation.
• Voting control concentrated in the founders' shares — The dual-class structure means holders of Class B shares owned 43.76% of the shares as of December 31, 2025 but controlled the large majority of the voting rights, enough to elect the board. Minority shareholders therefore have little influence over governance decisions.

Los principales clientes representan el 61% de los ingresos

The 20-F discloses that the top ten customers by revenue represented 61% of revenues for the year ended December 31, 2025, against 62% in 2024 and 60% in 2023, and that two customers individually exceeded 10% of revenues in 2025 (two in 2024 as well, one in 2023, none in 2022). The company does not name them. Concentration has risen sharply since 2022, when the top ten were 50% of revenues, and it is disclosed as a risk factor in its own right.