Andrés Silva

TBY talks to Andrés Silva, CEO of OnePay.

How does OnePay plan to impact the economy by simplifying payment processes through platforms like WhatsApp?

We identified that Latin America has a persistent problem in the payment sector. And we discovered that we can impact the payment process for users and companies. Right now, we are offering a solution for business that allows them to make payments easier for users through frictionless payments via WhatsApp. WhatsApp is a big social network that we found every Latin American person has on their phone. In the process of bringing the payment experience on WhatsApp down to 15 seconds, we have helped companies that meet three characteristics: recurring billing, overdue portfolios, and centralized payments. Thus, OnePay has become a liquidity generator for companies by bringing future money into the present, through a nimble payment experience on WhatsApp, which has helped to reduce by an average of 70% the costs associated with the collection for these companies, collect 60% of payments within the first 18 hours of sending out the bills, and a channel recurrence of 90%. An example of the companies we help are utility service companies that month after month send out a high volume of physical bills, less than 20% of their collection is digital, and they have a high operational cost.

How is OnePay leveraging artificial intelligence to combat fraud in the user onboarding process?

We specifically use AI at various levels, mainly to identify patterns of behavior. At every transaction level, whether it’s during enrollment, when adding payment methods, or at the time of making a transaction, it gives us a rating or score about the user’s risk. There, AI has helped to identify and trigger additional flows to prevent the materialization of fraud in the transaction. Additionally, at OnePay, we comply with the PCI DSS version 4.0 standard, and we have implemented various controls for the protection of data belonging to users and companies that use our service.

Could you provide more details on OnePay’s commitment to sustainability?

Currently, utility companies are one of the markets we serve. Just with the companies we work with, more than 20 million physical bills are printed each month. This equates to 100 tons of paper per month, adding up to 1,200 tons of paper per year. To this, we must add the carbon dioxide emissions generated from distributing these 20 million bills to each household. Today, OnePay is more than a comprehensive solution for collection; beyond processing transactions via WhatsApp, OnePay helps digitalize both the billing and the payment methods of users. This has a significant impact on reducing the financial costs for utility companies and, similarly, a very notable positive environmental impact. Currently, people do not receive their utility bill in digital form because, in the specific case of Colombia, the bill is delivered to the property, that is, to the physical house, not to the person making the payment. With OnePay, we are correlating the property’s database with the information and WhatsApp of the paying user. An email has an opening rate of 8%, while a WhatsApp message reaches 98%.

What are OnePay’s goals, and how does it envision its future role expanding into banking services?

In the short term, we are focused on enhancing our comprehensive solution for collection. This ranges from adding more digital wallets and bank accounts, to improving infrastructure for invoice delivery and push notifications for billing, as well as facilitating disbursements from the collection account to all the different suppliers of the company. Additionally, we are establishing relationships with various financing players in the market so that OnePay can assist in the origination of their loans. We are working to integrate solutions from “buy now, pay later” companies as a payment method for certain types of businesses. In the long term, we are considering expanding into more financial services. This evolution will primarily be driven by the need to improve cost efficiencies and develop additional revenue streams.