This article was translated from its original version in spanish, and it was written in the context of our virtual event "Financial Inclusion Cycle for SMEs 2023".

The digitization of business is here to stay, and along with it, the movement of money between people and companies around the world has also gone digital. In this article you will learn how financial technology companies support SMEs to digitize and internationalize their businesses, and we will delve into one particular type of service: digital payments.

Information Technology (IT) has become a driver for the global economy, especially during and after 2020, when numerous SMEs and startups in Latin America went digital and moved to the global market thanks to the use of these technologies. 

As we explained in this article on financial technologies, there are different types of companies within this sector, dedicated to generate solutions for different administrative challenges: there are payment platforms, financial management, insurance, credit, crowdfunding, factoring and reverse factoring, among others. In the following image we see some of the existing services in the market and how they support the digitization and internationalization of companies. 

Rodrigo Lama, CBO of Global66 joined us today in the second session of the Cycle of Financial Inclusion for SMEs. He explained to us that all these digital solutions are very useful for companies that want to scale and internationalize, however he puts three services in particular as the indispensable ones that every SME should evaluate: digital payment services, digital financial management services, and credit and financing services, due to the agility and savings that entrepreneurs can obtain.

A digital payment is the transfer of money or digital currency from one account to another using digital payment technologies, such as digital wallets, payment gateways, cross-border payments and remittances, mobile payments, payment QR codes, POS and mPOS mobile POS.

This technology enables companies to:

• Expand their offshore team and pay payroll for offshore workers and freelancers.
• Facilitate the payment of imports and receive payment for their exports.
• Pay for international services in the currency of your choice
• Transfer money between your different subsidiaries and branches
• Reduce exchange rate costs by operating in foreign currencies.

These platforms can also be automated to reduce operational costs and risks of error. For example, companies like InDrive, which operates in the collaborative economy of car rental with driver, perform thousands of transactions automatically through digital payment services.

Do you want to know the fintech companies in your country? We invite you to download the Fintech Iberoamerica catalog by clicking here. 

Financial inclusion is one of the most important global challenges, prioritized among the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8, since the growth, sophistication and export capacity of companies depends largely on their access to financing and related financial services that support their expansion.

Today we held the first session of our Cycle of Financial Inclusion for SMEs (website in Spanish), where we were joined by executives from the Fintech Associations of some of the countries in our region. 

To watch the recording of this event in Spanish click here.