Digitizing Businesses to Increase Visibility

Q: How does Treinta help democratize financial digitalization among merchants and SMEs in Latin America?

 A: Treinta was born in 2020 to digitize micro-merchants’ operations in Latin America. At the time, the entire region was going through a digitization phase that meant more access to smartphones and Wi-Fi. However, small businesses were still working as they did 20 years ago: manually.

Treinta is a simple app that replaces the seller’s notebook, allowing them to register their expenses and manage inventory easily and efficiently.

Q: What is Treinta expecting from the Mexican market in 2022 and what can clients expect from the company? 

 A: Treinta is an online e-commerce platform where all merchants can sell their products. To date, 76 percent of micro-sellers in Mexico are using social networks to try to sell their products. To do so properly, a digital presence is essential to increase product visibility and increase the brand’s popularity. Treinta’s core functionalities are fully free for sellers.

We have been growing rapidly since 2021. In Mexico, we have over 600,000 users and we are still understanding their needs and problems. One of our priorities is to continuously improve our app to provide users with a better experience. We recently launched Treinta Web, which allows users to improve their financial and inventory management. The web version is faster and allows users to reach a higher level of productivity than with the app.

Q: How will this user-centric approach help Treinta to continue growing?

 A: Treinta is highly user-centric because we made it a priority to understand our users from the outset. During the pandemic, we talked to street merchants in Mexico and Colombia to understand their needs. We used their feedback to create our products and services. We understood that merchants were trying to sell online and wanted to understand how to do it.

Treinta Web was created on the basis of users’ requests. In Mexico, 97 percent of transactions made by micro-businesses are done in cash. We want to launch a new product to replace cash.

Q: Based on the company’s current offer, what are the biggest benefits for businesses that are using the app?

 A: First, the app helps clients understand their main KPIs and leftover inventory. Second, users gain visibility by using the app, which helps them find new customers. Merchants learn how to improve sales using other technological tools, such as WhatsApp, to interact with customers without the need of a retail store.

Q: What are Treinta’s top priorities for 2022?

 A: Last year, we penetrated the market and became competitive. We now understand that merchants use cash for most transactions and few of them use online solutions, so we can help them even more. Our products have made it possible for merchants to evolve.

This year, we expect to surpass the 1.5-million-user mark in Mexico. We want to continue exploring new products linked to these types of services and to give access to alternative sources of capital, such as credit or payments.

Also, we recently announced that we raised USD 46 million in Series A, with the participation from new investors and strategic players such as PayU, the payments business of Prosus, as well as Liontree, Ethos VC, Ten13, ENEA Capital, among others. With this Series A, we will allow Treinta to keep growing exponentially and strengthen our product offering to increase the user's financial inclusion of microbusinesses in Latin America.

With this Series A, we surpassed the USD 60 million total fundraising mark since our inception in August 2020. During the past 12 months, our company has beaten growth expectations, multiplying its user base 20x, growing from 250 thousand to 5 million businesses in 18 countries and its headcount from 15 to 250 employees in 9 countries.

Treinta is a mobile app that helps make Latin American micro-businesses more efficient and to increase their revenue through digitization. Through the app, micro-businesses can record sales and loans, send payment reminders and digital receipts, manage inventory and set up a virtual store.