December 18, 2024
Rodrigo Teijeiro – CEO – RecargaPay
How One Company Is Democratizing Fintech Across Brazil, Rodrigo Teijeiro – CEO RecargaPay
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Here at the Reboot Chronicles, we have had the pleasure of talking with many disruptive brands shaking up the big dogs of industry. One that has had several disruptors globally has been Fintech with companies like Brex, Affirm (previous episodes) and many others changing how people can interact with their money. Today’s guest Rodrigo Teijeiro is a disruptor on a mission to democratize financial services with his RecargaPay mobile app.
It has been a long tough journey for Rodrigo to make RecargaPay a one-stop shop for people in Brazil to interact with their finances. Starting as an app that just allowed people to top-up their mobile phone plans from their phone, they now provide mobile wallets, digital financial services, and an even greater payment platform. Over the last handful of years, this 600-person remote-only company has raised over $150 million, serves millions people, and has an annual transaction volume approaching $4B. That’s huge. Follow along as we hear Rodrigo’s story about how he almost didn’t make it and how he will continue democratizing financial services.
From Where They Started To Now
As mentioned above RecargaPay started as a way for people to digitally top-up on their prepaid phone plan, and now has become a multi-faceted fintech super app. Their plan to start building traction was fairly simple, “offer a particular use case that is useful for people that is not being resolved by the market.” First was the Mobile top-ups, then when that got bigger they expanded into public transportation top-ups, then eventually into banking and more. Each time they carried the success and trust they had garnered from one innovation to the next.
Building Trust With Your Clientele
One of the facets that has allowed Rodrigo and RecargaPay to grow to the size they are now is the trust that they have built between themselves and their clientele. They have done no massive brand marketing campaigns or the like, and yet they were able to become a large player in the FinTech market through word-of-mouth. Ricardo says that this level of trust they have with their clientele is something “you only build with time and consistency and just have a good product.”
Being Comfortable Taking Risks Early
One piece of advice that Rodrigo has for up-and-coming entrepreneurs, is to “try out many things early on in life”. For Rodrigo, this looked like dropping out of his economics major at a college in Argentina to “start a business that failed.” Then from there he went back to school, and started another business, this time while staying in school. The important thing is that you take these risks early because later in life you might have a family or a mortgage that requires a level of stability that does not come with dropping everything and starting a business.
