Earlier this month while traveling in Costa Rica, I attended an entrepreneur community meetup in the heart of the country’s most-prominent metropolitan area, Escazú. The meetup was organized by Chepetech and the discussion was led by Marcela Ledezma, Director at Klap, which focuses on the payments sector in Latin America (LatAm). The region represents a population of about 600 million individuals.

The LatAm Landscape for the Internet and Mobile

Smartphones, mobile devices and the Internet are becoming mainstream throughout the LatAm region. So in order to illustrate this trend, Marcela shared some data. The mobile phone penetration rate — simply defined as the number of users divided by the population — for smart and mobiles phones has more than doubled from 2013 (19%) to 2018 (43%).

As we may have suspected, younger populations of users make up over 60% of users. And taking a closer look at the data reveals that 15-24 year olds account for 32.8% of the user base, while 25-34 year olds comprise 27.7%. That leaves users 35 and older comprising the other 40%.

The Evolution of Money

To wrap up her presentation, Marcela shared an interesting timeline that reviewed the evolution of money. Her timeline began with cash exchanges in Ancient Egypt, followed by checks in the 1^st century. Her timeline continued with the next big innovation of credit cards in the early 1900s. Electronic payments were next. Mobile payments rounded out the timeline in the late 1990s. Her timeline was great for illustrating that the industry is nascent and presents an opportunity for development.

Payment Solutions by Klap

The company has been able to grow its set of software solutions and offerings. You can visit their webpage for more information: https://www.oneklap.com/. On the company’s website you will see payments product solutions ranging from a hardware device to software that is available on the iPhone App Store and Google Play.