667: PayU Passes $180M Revenue, New Risk Assesment Product To Grow Financial Services Arm with Ex PayPal CEO Laurent Le Moal

Laurent Le Moal. He brings extensive knowledge of digital payments in emerging markets to PayU where he serves as the CEO. He culminated an 11-year career at PayPal as general manager for continental Europe, Russia, Middle East and Africa, leaving a billion dollar development vision across diverse geographies. Prior to PayPal, he founded an Italian startup called Talent Manager. He built a 40-person team there and now the startup has expanded to France and Spain. He also has experience in McKinsey and Antal International. He leads PayU’s strategic direction and development and is currently building on the company’s position and high-growth markets all around the world. Given the company’s focus on being an expert in a local market in which it operates, Le Moal leads the creation and implementation of payment methods which best suits PayU’s customers all around the world.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – The Hard Thing About Hard Things
• What CEO do you follow? – Chris Skinner
• Favorite online tool? — The Top Inbox
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6-7
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Just go and experience more”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:19 – Nathan introduces Laurent to the show
• 02:22 – PayU is a payment gateway which is basically serving merchants
• 02:43 – PayU has their own original platform
• 02:53 – “I believe that payments are extremely local and regional”
• 02:58 – Since Laurent joined PayU, they moved from pure payments to actual financial services offering credit solutions
• 03:22 – Payment is still the bigger market for PayU
• 03:34 – Laurent thinks that financial services is strategic move for payment companies
• 03:56 – Nathan had Monish Anand in Episode 617 who talks about data science
• 04:25 – “The ability to offer credit is the ability to manage risks”
  • 04:38 – All banks are using the same credit score model
  • 04:48 – If you go to India and want to address 90% of the population, then have the means to repay their debt
  • 05:16 – If you have a technology that does credit scoring, then the rest of credit is just mechanics
• 05:40 – Talent Manager is Laurent’s first company
  • 05:54 – Laurent started small in Milan
  • 06:39 – Laurent was 25 when he started Talent Manager in 1997
  • 06:56 – It was easy to get consumers
  • 07:20 – Laurent raised around €5M for their first round
  • 08:01 – It was growing fast
  • 08:22 – Laurent goes to India and sees companies with a high burn rate, which is a couple of hundred million rupees a year
  • 09:26 – Talent Manager was able to have a couple of million in revenue
  • 09:36 – Talent Manager’s software was sold
• 10:29 – Paypal started in 2004 with 3 people in Europe
  • 10:35 – They were looking for someone to do a market study about the potential for PayPal outside of eBay
  • 11:00 – PayPal expanded outside of eBay
• 11:22 – When you go to a high-growth market like India, most of the companies are still trying to increase the engagement of consumers
• 11:47 – Laurent had different stock options with PayPal
• 13:01 – PayU is part of Naspers, which is a diversified group and one of the biggest technology investors for the high-growth market
• 13:28 – PayU has their payment business and a fintech arm which is investing in interesting startups
• 13:56 – For PayU, the opportunity is not to just be an operator, but an investor
• 14:04 – Laurent believes that in fintech, it is difficult to scale your business
• 15:08 – Laurent invested Monese who is building the new bank for “unbanked” people
• 16:11 – Laurent shares how he got into PayU
  • 16:30 – Laurent join Naspers and PayU on the basis that he’d manage the business and transform it into a financial service company
• 16:53 – In 2016, PayU ‘s total payment transaction was around $18B
• 17:12 – Growth rate is around 40% year over year
• 17:20 – PayU forecasts to maintain their growth rate
  • 17:24 – PayU sees a really big push in India where the growth is around 70%
  • 17:30 – Laurent sees India as the most exciting market in the world
• 17:50 – Laurent sees their financial services to be continuously building in the coming years
  • 18:10 – Laurent wants 10% of their revenue to come from credit
  • 18:24 – Credit is the consumer credit where you give money to people and make money based from the interest rate
  • 18:38 – “What is important is when you start credit from scratch, it’s actually to build your portfolio in a very consistent way”
• 19:06 – PayU takes 1-3% per transaction
• 19:35 – Team size is close to 1500 from 4 main regions and they have 16 offices
• 20:54 – In fintech, there are regulations including money laundering regulations
• 21:53 – Average ARR in 2016
• 22:24 – PayU just launched LazyPay in India
  • 22:35 – The concept is to give you the possibility to buy something online then pay your debt later
  • 23:43 – The merchants love it
• 24:08 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

1. The payment gateway space is expanding and more startups are giving people easier access to credit.
2. Regulations are necessary, especially when it comes to managing those who try to take advantage.
3. Just go out there, gain more knowledge, and experience MORE.

Resources Mentioned:

• The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Organifi – The juice was Nathan’s life saver during his trip in Southeast Asia
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
• Freshbooks – Nathan doesn’t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW

Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives