AstroPay is a global digital wallet that provides users with a way to pay, send, and receive money. The app provides

online payment An e-commerce payment system (or an electronic payment system) facilitates the acceptance of electronic payment for offline transfer, also known as a subcomponent of electronic data interchange (EDI), e-commerce payment systems have become increa ...

s, virtual and physical

debit cards A debit card, also known as a check card or bank card, is a payment card that can be used in place of cash to make purchases. The card usually consists of the bank's name, a card number, the cardholder's name, and an expiration date, on either ...

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network, forming a peer-to-peer network of Node ...

money transfers, and more.

History

AstroPay was founded in

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

in 2009 as a payment processing company. Over time, it expanded its services across

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

EMEA Europe, the Middle East and Africa, commonly known by its acronym EMEA among the North American business spheres, is a geographical region used by institutions, governments and global spheres of marketing, media and business when referring to t ...

, and APAC. A significant milestone occurred in 2016, when AstroPay spun off dLocal, focusing on cross-border payments for emerging markets.

dLocal dLocal Limited is a Uruguayan financial technology company. It provides cross-border payments connecting global merchants to emerging markets. Established in 2016 as a startup, soon it became the first Uruguayan unicorn. The company has offices ...

became Uruguay's first

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unico ...

and eventually went public through a successful

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

. In 2020, AstroPay spun off its payment processing services into a new entity, D24, to focus on mobile wallet for cross border. Between 2023 and 2024 the Company brought new leadership to guide its transition towards becoming a fully focused global digital multicurrency wallet where users save, send, and spend globally. This shift introduced enhanced features, including loyalty prepaid cards and multicurrency accounts.

Services

AstroPay offers three main products: AstroPay Wallet, AstroPay check-out, and AstroPay Platform. AstroPay Wallet is a

digital wallet A digital wallet, also known as an e-wallet or mobile wallet, is an electronic device, online service, or software program that allows one party to make electronic transactions with another party bartering digital currency units for goods and s ...

for consumers, where they have multicurrency accounts, prepaid card and marketplace. With AstroPay check-out, businesses can tap into AstroPay's wallet user base by accepting AstroPay as a payment method in their check-out options. Lastly, AstroPay Platform enables other businesses to use the AstroPay network to launch their own global wallet.

Brand endorsements, partnerships

AstroPay's marketing strategy has included the development of co-branded products with sports teams and other brand. The company sponsored

Burnley Football Club Burnley Football Club () is a professional football club based in Burnley, Lancashire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1882, Burnley were one of the first to beco ...

during the

2018–19 Premier League The 2018–19 Premier League was the 27th season of the Premier League, the top English professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992, and the 120th season of top-flight English football overall. The season ...

season, renewing the partnership for the

2021–22 Premier League The 2021–22 Premier League was the 30th season of the Premier League, the top English professional league for association football clubs since its establishment in 1992, and the 123rd season of top-flight English football overall. The start a ...

season when it became the club's official payment service partner. In August 2021, AstroPay entered into a partnership with the

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

for the

2021-22 Premier League Increment or incremental may refer to: *Incrementalism, a theory (also used in politics as a synonym for gradualism) *Increment and decrement operators, the operators ++ and -- in computer programming *Incremental computing *Incremental backup, wh ...

season, and the following year, became the team's shirt sponsor. Later, in September 2021, AstroPay expanded its partnership with

, which included becoming the team's official payment partner and later, in 2023, co-launching a co-branded card. Other partnerships include

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

in 2021 in the

English Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

. AstroPay made arrangements to ensure that branding and logo would be visible on the pitch-side LED advertising during Premier League matches. Furthermore, in June 2022, the company renewed it's partnership with

for the

2022-23 Premier League The symbol , known in Unicode as hyphen-minus, is the form of hyphen most commonly used in digital documents. On most keyboards, it is the only character that resembles a minus sign or a dash, so it is also used for these. The name ''hyphen-min ...

season and launched its Wolves debit card in February 2023. Some other notable partnerships include:

Universidad de Chile The University of Chile () is a public research university in Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the co ...

in 2024, Tottenham Hotspurs in 2023-25, and even a collaboration with

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Major League Soccer ...

across all of Latin America.

Recent developments

AstroPay has refocused its strategy since 2023, pivoting from

payment processing A payment processor is a system that enables financial transactions, commonly employed by a merchant, to handle transactions with customers from various channels such as credit cards and debit cards or bank accounts. They are usually broken dow ...

to concentrate on its global

. This move reflects a broader effort to redefine the company's market positioning by emphasizing global

user-friendly Usability can be described as the capacity of a system to provide a condition for its users to perform the tasks safely, effectively, and efficiently while enjoying the experience. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a softw ...

financial services, while separating its identity from previous operations managed by

and D24.

References

{{Reflist Online payments Financial services companies established in 2009 Mobile applications