Dileep Thazhmon, CEO at $2.1B fintech unicorn Jeeves: LATAM is the future of fintech

Welcome to Season 3 of The J Curve, a podcast about entrepreneurship in Latin America. My guest today is ⁠Dileep Thazhmon⁠, founder and CEO at ⁠Jeeves⁠, a corporate spend and expense management platform for global businesses. Jeeves has raised over $260m from the likes of GIC, Tencent, a16z, CRV and more. Its last reported valuation was $2.1B. Since its public launch early in 2021 Jeeves scaled across 22 countries in North America, South America, the UK and Europe. In Latam the list of its customers include Bitso, Hotmart, Avenue, Buser and Cayena.

In our conversation we unpacked Jeeves unique playbook for entering new markets, discussed why Latin America and Brazil in particular is such a lucrative opportunity for Jeeves and how to build strong relationships with investors when pursuing a contrarian strategy like Jeeves’ global expansion across 22 countries.

In today's episode we discuss:

1. Vamos Latam: why focusing on Brazil and Mexico can be a game-changer for US fintech startups?

2. Jeeves global expansion playbook: practical strategies for entering new markets with a localized approach

3. Choose the right market: why fintech infrastructure and regulatory environments matter for scaling?

4. Cap table strategy 101: how to excel at raising capital with a contrarian go-to-market strategy?

5. Low ego, high output mentality: how to hire leaders who build exceptional teams and drive success at scale?

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Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass).

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Timestamps

00:00 Intro
0:52 From consultant to fintech CEO
03:26 Power Inbox: Key learnings
07:43Jeeves: the global fintech vision
11:41 Jeeves’ playbook: entering new markets
12:25 Fintech 2.0 landscape
16:56 How to build scalable products in diverse markets?
18:47 Insights as a successful B2B Global company
21:37 Effective approach to learning and what to focus?
23:49 Why Latam: the Brazil & Mexico play
30:29 Global expansion: the toughest challenges
33:03 How Jeeves raised $260m+ in funding
36:45 Cap-table strategy: raising from top investors
41:05 Focus on the right customers
46:02 Developing Scalable Go To Market strategies
47:59 Hiring world-class talent for scale
54:31 Leadership: low ego, high output culture
58:38 The Next 24 months for Jeeves?
59:42 Rapid Fire