The other day we were talking about DineroMail and how little was known about the investment from Clarin, now there’s a rumor going around that Martin Varsavsky could also have invested.
Carlos Blanco gives us this news in the blog OjoInternet, the sister blog of OjoBuscador and dedicated to internet business.
Since I don’t have more information, I won’t talk more about this rumor, but I do want to emphasize the following: South America is drawing my attention due to the big projects being hatched over there, some of them much bigger than projects in Spain. Talking about DineroMail, Gaston Bercun comments that it could be valued at 22 million dollars. There are other eye-catching examples of this, like Mercado Libre that went public or the “couldn’t be better” acquisition of Patagon by Banco Santander for 528 million dollars.
I think I’m not mistaken if I say that these huge successes are due to the world-class entrepreneurs in South America, with very clear ideas and a great capacity for doing business. Without doubt the mainstay is Martin Varsavsky, but other names come to mind like Wenceslao Casares (founder of Patagon), Fernando Espuelas (founder of Starmedia and starting up Voy), Marcos GalperÃn, Alec Oxenford, Matias de Tezanos (founder of ClickDiario and starting up Healthcare), Gonzalo Arzuaga (founder of GauchoNet and starting up Killerstartups), …
10 October 2008 at 8:03 pm
DineroMail is better than MercadoPago, that’s for sure. At least they accept most (if not all) local credit cards besides the Big-3 (visa/mc/amex)…. I mean DineroMail adds support for Cabal, Naranja, TarShop, and more…
I paid with DineroMail once, the transaction was approved right away, whereas MercadoPago in its worst day took up to 10 business days to approve a credit card transaction (which apparently they don’t do on-line).
Now, I’ve been struggling to do an e-payment for $30 USD to a local seller with my Cabal credit card (a very popular second-tier credit card issued by local cooperative bank Credicoop) and I’ve had nothing but trouble.
My credit card is paid and in working order, yet DineroMail refused the transactions, when I phoned Cabal (the CC issuer) they told me everything was right with my account and that I should phone the seller (DineroMail) which should in turn phone Cabal and “authorize” me as a customer.
I phoned Dineromail and told them just that. They replied that there was no problem whatsoever with Cabal and they they were already registered with Cabal to operate, so no call was needed.
I phoned Cabal and they told me that the seller should call them JUST ONCE not on every transaction and that once they do that all further transactions with my Cabal would work with that seller.
I repeated the message to DineroMail. They told me that I should call Cabal and ask to be registered as an associate (whatever the hell that means).
I phoned Cabal and the girl got a bit upset and told me “listen, you should tell the seller to approve the transaction through the old circuit, tell them that and they’d understand”
I phoned DineroMail and they seemed clueless about what that meant.
Finally, today, they acnowledged that there have been problems with Cabal and Tarjeta Shopping cards, and that these issues will be solved by Monday. [!!!]
Now, who pays me for all the phone calls at peak time?
FC
PS: I have all phone calls taped… Ludicrous…