We believe that the impossible is only part of the journey

Wei Duan, Head of APAC, Group VP at EBANX, is an exceptional self-driven senior management professional with extensive hands-on experiences and global market exposure in both online B2B & B2C. With a high degree of commercial acumen and entrepreneurial flair demonstrated through several self-challenging roles in setting up new businesses, identifying new business models, and transforming businesses in large scale, as well as a proven record of achievement in uplifting businesses by adopting new initiatives, Mrs. Duan has shown over the course of her career that she is a very acute and sharp leader with clear objectives, passionate dedication and a strong sense of loyalty and integrity. Al Bayan Magazine met Mrs. Duan on the sidelines of Seamless Middle East 2024 held in Dubai and conducted the following interview.

?Can you give us an idea about your EBANX
EBANX is a fast growing global fintech company with Latin American DNA. Headquartered in Brazil, we enable global organizations to grow exponentially in Latin America by leveraging a platform of end-to-end localized payment and financial solutions. We partner with hundreds of online merchants, including some of the largest brands on the internet, in segments as diverse as travel & hospitality, digital goods & services and physical products. Since the beginning, we have always believed that the impossible is only part of the journey. That’s precisely why we created a payment technology that connects the largest global companies with millions of consumers every day in 29 countries in Latin America, Africa, and South Asia. Our values fueled our growth trajectory since our founding in 2012. Through them, we supported enterprise companies in growing their business in Latin America and have given access to millions of Latin American consumers to international products and services. We started as the smallest company of the Endeavor program. Still, with a far-reaching vision, commitment to making all our goals possible, and investment from FTV Capital, we became one of the first unicorns in Brazil. Today, we are more than 700 e-bankers who believe it is possible to turn rising markets into an even greater opportunity for all our partners. No doubt that succeeding in Latin America and Africa isn’t always simple. Competition, regulations, exchanges, and taxes are challenges that companies have to face every day. Although the world is globalized and interconnected, there are cultural and regional differences everywhere. That’s why our local knowledge supports our partners in overcoming local challenges and embracing the beauty and diversity of these regions.

?What are your plans for the Middle East
The Middle East is definitely a very interesting region especially that we are from Latin America and we have our merchants in Europe and the US so, the Middle East is the region that we are least familiar with up until last year. It is very interesting for us to learn this region and we actually see so much demand from it. Thus, there is uplifting kind of interest going forward.

?To what extent your platforms are secured and protected against scams and cyber-attacks
As a payment provider especially from Latam where we usually have a relatively high level of fraud transactions, we are very focused on the security side in terms of how to structure the database, technology and the whole foundation of the technology. We have a whole team monitoring the transactions daily including data team, compliance team and cyber security team. Therefore, we have a heavy and daily operation that is actively going on within our payment company. The latest anti-fraud and risk management solution from EBANX alaso leverages advanced machine learning technology to provide comprehensive support, creating a safer environment for international merchants engaged in cross-border transactions in rising economies.

?What is the added value behind your participation at Seamless Middle East 2024
For 24 years, Seamless has been a meeting place for the brightest and most innovative minds across the payments, fintech, banking, retail, e-commerce, home delivery and digital marketing industries. It is one of the largest trade shows where one can explore the recent trends, market challenges and developments that will shape the payments, fintech, digital, logistic and e-commerce worlds. It offers a comprehensive range of digitalization and technologies that are essential for most professionals at different levels in today’s ever-changing landscape, providing an opportunity to interact with a large number of visitors and close business deals with them. We are overly happy with the interaction that we are getting from this exhibition especially that we saw a great interest in our solutions from our Middle Eastern friends. Overall, Seamless gives us a great momentum to be focusing on the Middle East region.

?How were your results during 2023? What are your plans going forward into 2024
2023 was the expansion year for EBANX. We started moving from LATAM to Africa and then we expanded into India which was one of the highlight markets for us. In 2024, we are looking forward to consolidate all of our solutions that have been built up until now and engage more with the merchants and help them in a much better way.