With twelve national and international partnerships established since then, Zro Bank is preparing to dive deep into these two sectors, which, together, should move more than R$ 25 billion (US$ 4.85b) in Brazil in 2023.
“The sports betting and gaming markets saw a huge rise with the arrival of the PIX system, which facilitated the process of sending and receiving reais across Brazil, previously carried out with a credit card. But, at the same time, came the great challenge for banks to have the technological structure to support the millions of payments processed with confirmations in a few seconds,” explains Edísio Pereira Neto, CEO of Zro Bank.
In 2023, the projection is to reach more than R$ 10 billion (US$ 1.95b) in volume with more than 500 million transactions. In the sports betting market, for example, each Pix operated by Zro has an average ticket of R$ 20 (US$ 3.9).
Zro Bank, which entered the Central Bank of Brazil (Bacen) to act as an authorized Payment Institution, now also acts as a payment facilitator for foreign companies that wish to operate in Brazil, following the eFX regulations and planning to increasingly integrate the crypto market with the games market, with strategic partnerships focused on the world of tokenization.
The technology works as a multibank gateway, integrating in addition to its own API, that of four other traditional banks, for instant payments and receipts, with dynamic QR Code generation. This variety of banks offers 100% liquidity, 24 hours a day, so that customers don't have problems during peaks, which can exceed more than 30,000 PIX per minute.
In addition to high availability, Zro Bank also invested in automating exchange rate closings for foreign companies and in generating customizable reports with automatic reconciliation to make life easier for the finance department of these companies that need to operate in hyperscale.
According to Pereira Neto, the combination of these facilities makes the fintech solution one of the most complete in the Brazilian market. Prepared to attract foreign customers, the company will be present at ICE London 2023, one of the largest gaming fairs in the world, which takes place this week in UK’s capital city.
Sérgio Massa, director of operations at Zro Bank, says that there are advanced conversations with new betting sites and game developers, and also with retailers and e-commerces, which are in the process of analyzing the registration to start operating: "We think strategically on how to serve these players with low cost and high availability.”
“We reduced the fees that were practiced in the market by up to 50% and innovated not only with an ATM gateway, but also with APIs for accepting cryptocurrencies as a means of payment and automated exchange closing, which guarantees legality and less exposure to risk. for these operations by foreign companies," reveals the executive. Of the twelve current partners, three are international and one already offers end customers payment in cryptocurrencies.
In November 2021, the Crypto as a Service solution was launched, which are customized APIs for other fintechs that want to offer the purchase, sale or custody of cryptocurrencies within their websites and applications. This innovation earned Zro Bank an award in the 2022 edition of Banking Transformation, one of the main awards in the financial sector, in the Best Solution for Financial Marketplaces category, in addition to leadership in the Top Scale Up Brazil Ranking of 100 Open Startups.
Launched in September 2020 as the first digital bank in the Northeast region of the country (based in Recife), Zro Bank is the first cryptobank or multi-currency bank in Brazil. This means that, in addition to performing the traditional services of a bank, its users can, in the same account, pay and receive in reais or crypto assets, always with immediate liquidity.
Zro Bank was also the first institution in Brazil to implement, together with VISA, cashback in Bitcoin for transactions carried out on its card, thus evolving the loyalty/miles market in the country. Elected among the 5 largest fintechs in Brazil, in the 100 Open Startups ranking of 2020, it was appointed, in 2021, as one of the most promising finance startups by the 100 Startups to Watch ranking.
Source: GMB
