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Wealth in Uruguay has historically been tied to agriculture and meatpacking, but it took a fintech startup to create the country’s first billionaires.
Andres Bzurovski, 43, and Sergio Fogel, 57, joined the ranks of the world’s richest following DLocal Ltd.’s initial public offering in New York. Shares of the payments firm they founded climbed to $32.39 Thursday in the first day of trading -- a 54% increase over the IPO price -- collectively valuing the pair at about $3.69 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. DLocal allows companies including Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Spotify Technology SA to handle payments in 29 developing countries where international credit cards are scarce and cash is king. A 2020 investment round led by General Atlantic valued the firm at $1.2 billion, making it Uruguay’s first unicorn. A subsequent round led by Alkeon Capital in April valued it at $5 billion.
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