Diego Serebrisky, Dalus Capital | The Investment Thesis Behind Clip [Ep. 29]

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The audio and video are in Spanish. These notes are a translation.

In this episode, we analyze the investment thesis in Clip. For this, we are launching a new interview format called Investment Thesis, where we analyze some of the best startup investments in Latin America together with the venture capital funds that invested in the early rounds.

Today we have Diego Serebrisky, partner and cofounder of Dalus Capital, who led Clip’s Series A, the leading fintech solution so that SMEs can receive electronic payments in Mexico.

Recently, Clip became one of the new Mexican unicorns with a valuation of USD $2 billion and has raised about USD $400 million from venture capital funds such as Softbank and General Atlantic.

Diego told us how he met Clip’s founding team, how he made the decision to invest even though it operated in such a regulated and concentrated market, and how he sees the company’s future.

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Introduction to Clip and the Payments Market

Youtube Timestamps
  • [1:08] - How did Diego get into the world of startups?
    • Lack of investors in the ecosystem
  • [2:40] - Diego’s first contact with Clip
    • Investment Committee of Angel Ventures
  • [4:23] - Opportunities in the financial services sector that led Diego to invest in Clip
    • Very little penetration: 9% of transactions between consumers and businesses were made by card
    • Bank oligopoly: expensive, bureaucratic, and poorly standardized service
  • [6:50] - Investment thesis in Clip: competitive landscape
    • Three competitors: the banks, other local startups, and international startups
    • The other startups focused heavily on the technology, but not on the service
  • [13:43] - What risks did they identify in Clip’s business model?
    • Fraud: not having the right algorithms to identify them
    • Aggressive competitors
    • Financial system regulations
  • [17:00] - Characteristics of the founding team that convinced Diego to invest
    • Deep experience and knowledge in the payments vertical: Adolfo’s work at PayPal and other payments companies in the United States
    • Contacts in the financial sector
    • The founders’ obsession with service and customer care

Leading the Series A

  • [21:22] - How did Diego present the proposal to invest in Clip again to the investment committee, despite the distribution problems?
    • Experimenting with new alternatives: connecting Clip with Walmart, Oxxo, and other companies
    • Conviction that distribution would be successful
  • [26:55] - Changes in Clip’s distribution after the Series A
    • Emphasis on offline distribution: sales in physical stores
    • Sales team for the commercial agreements with chains
  • [30:16] - Pricing strategy for Clip’s devices
    • Initial thesis: the device was going to be given away
    • Charging as a filter for the customers who were actually interested in using Clip

The Present and Future of Clip

  • [35:06] - What have been Adolfo’s most important changes as CEO?
    • A great entrepreneur who has built a great team
    • Moving from the day to day of operations to focusing on strategy
  • [38:47] - What changed in the market that favored Clip?
    • Accelerated development of the startup and venture capital ecosystem
    • Incredible growth of the Fintech industry: greater recognition and more talent
    • Much more capital available to invest in startups
  • [42:00] - What will make Clip keep winning in the future?
    • Obsession with the brand and with service, implanted in the company’s DNA
    • Complementary products: financing and other financial products
  • [44:16] - Clip’s internationalization
    • A growing need for digital payments
    • Different regulations and context for each country: more effort and work is required to adapt to the market

Episode Mentions

You can find Diego on Twitter and on his blog Serebrisky.

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