Juan Guruceta, (Divilo): “The new generations no longer want to have cash”

2023-08-25 07:16:32

John Guruceta founded divilo in January 2020 to offer payment, collection and accounting services for companies and the self-employed, although it did not start operating until January 2022, just after obtaining the license from the Bank of Spain. Some 6,000 users use its Tap to Phone application that turns your mobile phone into a dataphone. They have just signed an agreement with Boyacá and Visa to digitize payments from newsstands and have been collaborating with Cabify for a year. Guruceta assures in this interview that they have delayed their plans to go public in 2024, but they still aspire to cross the ocean to expand their business in Latin America through the Dominican Republic.

-Which sectors use your application the most?

Urban mobility, delivery, distribution and logistics. I think Cabify has four thousand drivers working with us, that is, we also have a significant weight in this sector.

-Do the taxis also work with Divilo?

To a lesser extent, the truth. We are delighted and we have many clients, but in relation to the volume we have more clients from the ride-hailing (VTC) sector than from the taxi sector. It is true that the ride-hailing part is easier for us because in the end if one of the three main companies in Spain notifies all its users, riders or drivers of the existence of our product, there is a very large adoption. In the taxi world you have to go one by one and there are times when the bank competes with us on price, for which reason people prefer the dataphone because we do not claim to be the cheapest, but the best.

-Do you also focus on startups and large companies?

Startup we have less, but in the end we are in everything that is B2C or B2B. Our client profile today is a large corporation that has many freelancers below it, so we try to have the ‘corporate’ there to then reach freelancers who travel or freelance in a much more efficient way.

-In addition to alliances such as Visa and boyacá or Cabify, do you have other alliances in sight?

Yes, in fact we have several already signed, but they are confidential or at least not yet made public. Of the four verticals that I have given you, it would be delivery.

-After the boom that we have experienced from digitization due to the pandemic, do you maintain the same growth now?

We are growing more now because in 2020 Divilo still did not have a license from the Bank of Spain to operate, so during the year of the pandemic we were basically programming, making technological developments and preparing all the filing of the license. We are a company that, although it was founded during the pandemic or just before the pandemic began, we have entered the post-pandemic market.

Do you think cash will disappear?

At least throughout my professional career, surely not. And more in Spain where there is a very significant amount of cash. Spain is among the countries in the world with the most cash and I think that removing cash is also a way of giving people freedom, of being able to choose the payment method. That being said, the use of cash is indeed shrinking at an absolutely astronomical rate. The new generations no longer want to have cash. I myself have not had an inch in my pocket for many years, something that is not good either, but I am already used to a totally digitized life in terms of payments. But that the money disappears 100% in Spain of course I do not see it.

-And do you think that its application is a way to expand digitization in rural areas?

Yes absolutely. Our technology is much better than a dataphone, cheaper. First, we have 5G, we use the technology of mobile phones or SIM cards, with which all the improvements made to a mobile phone benefit us and, above all, benefit the customer. Also in rural areas, where you do not always have the necessary coverage and of course a dataphone does not have. And if you run out of paper in the dataphone you are annoyed. We have eliminated paper, which not only pursues a benefit of sustainability, which for me is fundamental since I set up the company, but also comfort and efficiency.

-Divilo had set 2024 as the date to go public, do you still maintain this goal?

In two and a half years things have changed a lot. Next year we will certainly go public.

-And do you have a new date?

Right now the objective that I have as president of the company is to grow, right now I am not considering these types of ambitions, I think that right now we have a huge catalog of clients that we have to provide service to and I think that thinking about going out to stock market right now would make us stop paying attention to our clients, who in the end are the ones who are asking us, and to whom we must dedicate all the focus at this moment.

-What plans do you have for internationalization?

We already have a European passport, so we will soon launch it in Portugal and expand throughout the European Union. And we would also like to reach Latin America at the end of 2024 or 2025 starting with the Dominican Republic.

-Why the Dominican Republic and not Colombia or Mexico?

Because the Dominican Republic is a segment that is hyper-advanced touristically. It has a very high GDP, especially thanks to that sector. The issue of payments is not particularly developed and we believe that there is an opportunity because we also have very little competition there. We believe that there we can achieve a very strong volume of business in a very short time. And, of course, then we’ll go to Colombia or Mexico, but we think it’s a good starting point because it’s not the usual strategy that a company would use for expansion in Latin America. Since there are so many competitors in Colombia and Mexico, it makes it more difficult. That is why we started with the Dominican Republic, where we have many contacts, we have relevant know-how and we can add value there. The volume of business is immense.

-Do you contemplate incorporating payment with cryptocurrencies in the future?

Not right now. That is one thing that came up, but we have already seen that cryptocurrencies have a very high risk, they are very volatile. I do not close doors, but in the short term, for the next two or three years, we do not have it in our sights.

-What turnover and benefits have you obtained in 2022?

It is confidential. At the moment we have no benefit. Last year was our first year of operations, we have not had accumulated losses yet.

Do you know when you will be able to reach profitability?

We are expecting profitability in June next year. The date is very exact, but we do have that objective. Nor do we have a particularly oversized team. I have always liked having small teams, and in the first company I set up I achieved profitability in the third year, so I am very happy. I am moderately optimistic about being able to do it in the third year of operations.

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-What plans do you have in the short and medium term, beyond international expansion?

Keep improving our product. I think we are very much at the forefront of payment method technology at a European and global level, but it can always be improved and we will continue working on it, especially to provide better support and service to those four verticals that have many needs beyond collection, and continue to focus on the customer. And of course, continue scaling in both large, medium and small clients in order to achieve that profitability as soon as possible.