CRO Details Transfero’s Global Expansion Strategy

Transfero is developing its first investment round to expand its business internationally in a scalable and orderly manner

Rafael Motta  /  January 17, 2025
Juliana Schlesinger Felippe Juliana Schlesinger Felippe
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Transfero’s Chief Revenue Officer, Juliana Schlesinger Felippe, participated in episode 121 of Aaron Stanley’s Brazil Crypto Report podcast. Titled “Transfero Goes Global with Juliana Felippe,” the executive discussed the company’s stance on topics such as regulation, international growth, and the global adoption of digital currencies.

With previous experience at large companies like WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and Paxos, a startup specializing in digital asset exchange infrastructure, Felippe is making valuable contributions to adjusting Transfero’s business strategy. Conceived as a bootstrapped company, it has expanded operations to several countries without external funding, but now seeks its first round of investments to strengthen its market presence.

According to Juliana, Brazil is one of the markets with the highest adoption of crypto assets in the world and, in addition, is following a pro-innovation path, which explains Transfero’s sought-after shift. This scenario, incidentally, allows several other players to build their own financial products and services in a regulated, scalable, and disruptive manner, which, in her view, brings legal and economic security to investors.

There is a special emphasis on the increase in regulatory processes, one of the key points of this new venture. “I led Paxos’ operations and structured them in Brazil and Latin America. Today, the startup is the most regulated in the sector, as well as recognized by its large partners, such as Nubank and PayPal. It was great to build new trends and reputation, and build partnerships locally,” she commented.

Stablecoins in the World of Financial Inclusion

Businesses of all sizes can accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, without the effects of volatility. To do this, it is possible to resort to stablecoins: digital currencies usually backed by fiat currency, such as BRZ, whose value is proportional to the Brazilian Real exchange rate.

With the increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies in Brazil, businesses are adding other payment options so that no sale is lost. “If we think of any company that doesn’t want to have so much bureaucracy to move money from one place to another, there are several use cases in this sense. In 2023, we transacted about US$ 1 billion and, still in 2024, we have already moved around US$ 1.5 billion. We are growing year after year,” Juliana detailed. “When we think about issues like payroll and cross-payments, they are already part of what we are doing. However, we are currently focusing on utility,” she added.

Although Pix has solved several limitations related to transfers, it is not integrated between countries. Therefore, Juliana emphasizes that the use of regulated and transparent stablecoins allows sending and receiving funds internationally in a few seconds, with very low fees and no time restrictions, common problems in much of the world.

According to Juliana, white label services are in Transfero’s sights and should be announced later this year, such as credit cards that operate with cryptocurrencies, for example. In this way, merchants and consumers can make payments without worrying about manual conversions, which are often complex for those who are not used to the blockchain universe.

Stablecoins, CBDCs, and Drex

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) – something already happening in many countries – aim for exponential growth of cryptocurrencies in the market. Drex (Digital Real) is the asset being developed by the Central Bank of Brazil and, although it runs on a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), it is not a blockchain project.

Its control and governance mechanisms are different, but this does not limit the Central Bank, which intends to build internal mechanisms to ensure interoperability between Drex and other digital currencies and platforms, facilitating financial products.

“If we think about the structure of the economy, the Central Bank will continue to have its reserves connected with banks and financial institutions, and institutions will have their contracts with the user, who can choose the best token for each use case. I feel that, with the Digital Real in operation, stablecoins will not be affected. We need to make society feel comfortable and secure with the rules that are being based on,” commented Juliana.

Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS): A Global Trend

There are several cases of import and export of products in which this new model can exert influence, as well as entities that do not want to build all the bureaucracy within Brazil. In this context, payment platforms that follow the banking-as-a-service model are able to build an integrated ecosystem not only in relation to products but also to specific regulatory frameworks.

In addition to Transfero, MoonPay, ConsenSys, Polygon, and Ripple are actively working in this direction. Supported by the Linux Foundation, Hyperledger Fabric develops BaaS solutions for building private and consortium networks.

Juliana commented that, to achieve this goal, there are three main paths. “The first is to build a process to ensure scalability. That’s why we are seeking our first round of investments. The second is to filter the right investors, building and scaling according to our vision. Finally, we want to expand internationally and consistently to add features on top of our infrastructure, making us capable of serving large banks and other players,” she explained.

The complete interview of Juliana Felippe for journalist Aaron Stanley of Brazil Crypto Report can be seen on YouTube:

The episode is also available on Spotify and Amazon Music


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