BucksApp, an B2B fintech startup founded in Paraguay and Bolivia, has successfully secured $1 million in a pre-seed funding round, marking a significant milestone in its journey.
The company specializes in providing data-based solutions for a wide range of clients, including financial institutions such as banks, digital wallets, and card processors, as well as non-financial entities like retailers, supermarkets, and pharmacies.
Their primary mission is to help these clients maximize their revenue through comprehensive and detailed analysis that provides a better understanding of transactional data to drive sales.
Funding and Investor Support
The funding round was led by iThink VC and BuenTrip Ventures, with additional contributions from Escalatec and angel investors. This financial backing not only underscores confidence in BucksApp’s business model but also marks an important milestone: BucksApp becomes the first Paraguayan startup backed by three regional venture capital firms from Paraguay, Bolivia, and Ecuador.
Jazmín Gustale, General Partner at iThink VC, expressed confidence in BucksApp’s founding team, highlighting their combination of industry experience and geographical knowledge of the markets in which they operate. Carmen De La Cerda, Managing Partner at BuenTrip Ventures, emphasized BucksApp’s role in building a key infrastructure component within their target markets. Viviana Coloma, Fund Manager at Escalatec, highlighted BucksApp’s potential to transform how institutions leverage their data to drive sales in Latin America.
Leadership and Vision
BucksApp is led by CEO Sebastián Romero and CFO Lorena Grundy, originally from Paraguay and Bolivia respectively. This management team combines solid experience in the financial sector, technological development, and startup growth. Their collective vision and passion for financial inclusion and technological advancement uniquely position BucksApp for success in its ambitious expansion across Latin America.
Sebastián Romero, CEO, shared: “With this funding round, we are prepared to take significant steps in Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, further developing our technology and expanding our team. Our mission is to help our clients revolutionize the way they understand their customers’ transactional behavior to drive sales.”
Technology and Services
BucksApp’s value proposition centers on its ability to transform large amounts of data, often duplicated and incomplete, into useful information for decision-making that drives revenue. For example, they can help a bank launch a discount associated with one of its cards for a specific audience at a specific merchant, or help a supermarket create personalized promotions for slow-moving products based on customer consumption patterns.
BucksApp’s advanced technology allows it to connect to its clients’ databases in real-time, consuming all types of transactional data, from card transactions and QR payments to transfers and cash operations. This data is processed through their proprietary algorithm based on artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify opportunities to generate higher sales. The results can be visualized in tables, graphs, websites, or mobile applications through internal APIs and SDKs.
Lorena Grundy, CFO, adds: “We are building our solution in the most ‘plug and play’ and automated way possible, from data consumption to reporting and purchase/sale recommendations. This way we can target various customer segments such as banks, retailers, pharmacies, and digital wallets in different countries.”
Data Security and Privacy
In a world where data security is paramount, BucksApp has implemented robust protection measures. Romero explains: “At BucksApp, we work with anonymous data and encrypted information. This means that the data we receive from our clients is encoded so that only the client can know the identity of their users.”
The company uses Google Cloud servers, which provide a private and encrypted network. “Data travels in encrypted format in data centers that offer multiple levels of security and isolation and have configurations that limit access,” adds Romero.
Market Potential and Expansion Strategy
The market potential in BucksApp’s target countries – Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru – is considerable. In these countries, there are nearly 20,000 potential client entities, including banks, digital wallets, processors, cooperatives, smaller financial institutions, retailers, supermarkets, and pharmacies. With an average annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $40K per client, the total addressable market (TAM) approaches $1B in annual recurring revenue.
Grundy details the expansion strategy: “We have an orderly growth strategy to enter new markets. We firmly believe in the power of networking and contact networks, which allow us to reach the right people within potential client companies. Additionally, it’s fundamental for us to show our clients the value we can add to their businesses, which we do through proof of concepts where they can tangibly see our solutions and their benefits.”
Achievements and Current Clients
In the last 15 months, BucksApp has made significant progress. They have developed and launched their first MVP (Minimum Viable Product) tested with initial clients, and have expanded their team in Paraguay and Bolivia. The company has signed contracts with three banks, one processor, and two retailers, impacting more than 300,000 customers and processing over 20 million transactions.
Romero mentions: “As of today, 100% of our revenue comes from recurring clients. It’s worth noting that we have 3 pending contracts to sign with new clients.” Additionally, BucksApp is in the pilot phase in Bolivia and has Peru as its next target market.
Competitive Advantage and Pricing Model
BucksApp’s competitive advantage lies in its ability to offer a quick, efficient, and economical solution compared to the internal development of similar solutions by companies. Grundy highlights: “Our clients, in part, are starting to clean and analyze their data. However, for them to do it efficiently, it would cost them hundreds or thousands of dollars as they sit on legacy infrastructures. At BucksApp, we offer a safer, more accurate, and faster way to collect, clean, and analyze all types of transactional data to find opportunities to generate higher revenues.”
Regarding the pricing model, Romero details: “Our business model has two components, the first is a one-time integration fee, and the second is the monthly fee that is based on the volume of data processed for each client.” He adds that they differentiate themselves “by having an accessible price structure.”
Client Retention and Success Metrics
BucksApp has achieved an impressive client retention rate. Romero notes: “To date, our retention rate has been close to 100%, our clients feel the value we generate for them and a bond is created where BucksApp is more than a provider, it’s a strategic ally.”
Grundy lists some key metrics they use to measure success: “Sessions initiated, session duration, in the case of financial sector clients: percentage of budget compliance of their users (personal finance functionalities). For non-financial sector clients: number of clicks on personalized campaigns/promotions, percentage increase in sales of promoted products.”
Regulatory Challenges and Implementation Time
Regarding regulatory challenges, Grundy explains: “Among the sectors we work with, the one with the most rigorous regulation is the financial sector. As we are a service provider, we are not subject to this regulation, however, as strategic allies of our clients, BucksApp accompanies them throughout the entire process necessary to obtain any type of authorization, permit, or no objection from the regulatory body.”
Regarding implementation time, Romero indicates: “Once the contract is signed, implementation can take between 1-3 months, depending on the level of service required by the client.” He adds: “We have proven to be faster in integration. A bank normally takes more than 12 months to integrate with technology providers, we have done it in 6 months.”
Future Plans and Long-term Vision
BucksApp has ambitious growth plans. Romero establishes the short-term profitability goal: “We want to achieve profitability in the next 6 months by closing with 10 clients with monthly tickets of $1k to $2k.”
Regarding service diversification, Grundy adds: “Our strategy is to start with this data and sales-oriented solution and then offer more products and do ‘up-selling’. Predictive analysis is something we are working closely on as an example.”
Finally, Grundy shares the long-term vision: “The idea is to start in Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru and then go to the rest of Latin America. Once we have an interesting footprint, get on the radar of a potential buyer, be it a bank, processor, or credit agency. We have seen that this path worked very well for larger competitors in Europe.”
With its innovative technology, experienced team, and backing from major investors, BucksApp is well-positioned to transform the way companies in Latin America use their data to drive sales, with a clear focus on regional expansion and continuous technology development.
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