Leasy is a Peruvian fintech leasing company leveraging its tech-enabled underwriting to provide vehicles to rideshare drivers for platforms such as Uber. We sat down with Gregorio Gilardini, CEO of Leasy, to talk about Leasy’s work with Uber, their underwriting and due diligence process, and how they benefited from working with Percent.
Leasy helps ride-hailing drivers chart a path to vehicle ownership. How did this become the driving mission behind your company?
Leasy’s objective is to democratize access to vehicle financing in Latin America for ride-hailing drivers. By providing financing to an otherwise unbankable market, Leasy allows ride-hailing drivers to escape the poverty trap and gain financial independence, creating a generational impact to both the lives of our clients and their families.
How did your partnership with Uber come to be? Has it been instrumental to Leasy’s success?
Like many of our partnerships today, our partnership with Uber was a result of many long conversations. In this process, it was extremely important for us to demonstrate how the solution we provide our clients ultimately benefits Uber’s clients and their experience. There are very few cases in which both parties are fully aligned, and a partnership is a clear win-win, and we are extremely thrilled this was one of those. Uber has played a pivotal role in Leasy’s success, and we are extremely happy to work alongside them.
By allowing us to access valuable data and integrating ourselves in the payment structure, we have been able to mitigate risk and attract typically risk-averse financial institutions to join our mission.
What technologies does Leasy utilize in your underwriting and due diligence process?
At Leasy, we have created a proprietary scoring system that allows us to instantly generate a full “x-ray” of our clients. By collating driver-specific industry data through our API connection to Uber with a full-scan on the drivers’ background (social and professional), we can paint a full picture that allows us to drastically minimize risk.
Not every ride share driver in Peru knows they can utilize a service like Leasy. How would potential customers who are not currently signed up benefit from becoming a Leasy user?
As a result of the stringent and sometimes punitive underwriting parameters of traditional financing institutions, over 70% of drivers today are still forced to rent a vehicle to be able to work with ride-hailing apps. Leasy’s subscription solution allows them to shift from a sunk cost to an investment, allowing our clients the opportunity to finance their own asset for the same price as renting it!
Aside from being able to finance a car, Leasy’s services also provide formality to an otherwise informal market. Whether it is providing legal contracts, facilitating payments, or even helping with the maintenance of the car, Leasy’s benefits truly cover everything for a driver.
What might American investors not know about the Peruvian ride share market?
Peru’s ride-sharing market is extremely resilient. With Lima being home to over 14 million people with little-to-no access to public transportation, the dependence on private transport results in crowning Lima as one of the regions in the world with the highest taxi-per-capita rate. A practical example for this was the speed at which the ride-hailing market bounced back after the removal of mobilization restrictions applied during COVID. After just two months, drivers were already generating 80% of what they did pre-COVID.
Aside from the ride-hailing market, unbeknown to most, Peru also holds the record of the most stable currency in Latin America, and has experienced the highest rate of GDP growth in Latin America.
How does Leasy plan to expand in Peru and /or beyond?
Our growth strategy can be summarized as “Hubs and Nodes.” That is, focusing on the capital cities of Spanish-speaking Latin American countries and leveraging all of our regional partnerships. We are ecstatic to finally launch in the Mexican market by entering Mexico City, and are confident we will be able to demonstrate the power of our team and technology by bringing home exceptional results.
How has your partnership with Percent impacted your company?
Starting our journey from a risk-averse region and building a solution for a client segment that was historically misunderstood by old-fashioned financial institutions made it so that our growth was always constrained by access to capital. Unlike traditional banks, Percent’s team and due diligence process was meticulous in understanding our business model and worked to an unparalleled level of granularity, focusing on real results rather than past stigmas.
We are extremely excited to be able to finally grow at our own pace and finance the 1,500-plus people on our waiting list!