DLocal's Meteoric Rise: TPV Up 92% as Ride-Hailing and Travel Power a Record Quarter
The emerging-markets payments giant accelerates growth, but take-rate pressure and one-offs cloud the operating leverage narrative.
DLO · Earnings Call · 2026-08-13
Record TPV Growth and the Ride-Hailing Tailwind
DLocal's second quarter of 2026 was nothing short of spectacular. Total payment volume (TPV) reached $17.7 billion, a 92% year-over-year surge that Pedro Arnt, CEO, called “the highest growth rate since the first quarter of 2022.” — Pedro Arnt, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-08-13 This is not a blip; net revenue retention hit 153%, the fifth straight quarter above 140%. The company processed more in Q2 than in all of 2023. The growth is broad-based, but Pedro highlighted that “ride-hailing has doubled Q-on-Q” — Pedro Arnt, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-08-13 and travel remains a strong contributor. He also credited a massive ramp-up from a single large merchant, though he noted that excluding this merchant, TPV growth would still have exceeded 65% year-over-year.
The market is clearly rewarding this momentum. While the company's price tape is not provided in this context, the fundamental story is one of explosive scale. DLocal's ride hailing and on-demand delivery volumes are reshaping its business mix, with local-to-local flows climbing to 61% of TPV, up 6 points sequentially. This is a double-edged sword: it drives impressive volume growth but also puts pressure on take rates.
Following the strength we've seen in the first half, we are updating our annual guidance. We continue to see strong momentum across multiple verticals and geographies. This strength is broad-based and gives us the confidence to raise our TPV growth guidance to 60% to 70% year-over-year.
Take Rate Dynamics: Mix Shift vs. Volume
The take rate narrative remains the market's central obsession. In Q2, the net take rate declined sequentially, driven by the mix shift toward local-to-local and lower-margin ride-hailing. Pedro was candid: “If you back out that one very large ride-hailing merchants mix gains at a lower take rate, take rate would have been relatively flat sequentially.” — Pedro Arnt, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-08-13 He emphasized that incremental TPV at incremental gross profit is the financial model, not managing to a specific take rate. However, with TPV growth now accelerating, the company sees the decline decelerating. “I think implied in our revised guidance is not a reversal of take rate. It is a deceleration in the rate at which take rate declines.” — Pedro Arnt, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-08-13
This echoes prior quarters. In the Q1 2026 call (May 2026), Guillermo Perez had already flagged that the investment cycle would drive operating expense growth and that operating leverage would come in the second half. He said: “We have already initiated some targeted corrective actions. For example, we don't expect any new net hiring throughout the rest of the year.” — Guillermo Perez, Chief Financial Officer · 2026-05-14 The current quarter confirms that discipline, with headcount broadly flat and gross profit per employee rising.
The Automation and Operating Leverage Story
A key new thread this quarter is the tangible impact of AI and automation. Pedro revealed that “over 60% of code is already AI generated” — Pedro Arnt, Chief Executive Officer · 2026-08-13 and engineering deployments nearly doubled year-over-year. This is enabling the company to support volume growth north of 80% with stable headcount. The company expects these gains to translate into operating leverage in the second half, alongside the fading of one-off costs like the World Cup marketing spend and the non-recurring tax item. This is a story of operational leverage that has been promised for several quarters, but now appears to be crystallizing. Yet management is careful not to overpromise: Pedro warned that the Q4 exit-rate margin structure should not be extrapolated linearly into 2027.
Guidance Raise and Strategic Moves
Beyond the headline numbers, DLocal is making strategic shifts. The company is raising its gross profit growth guidance to 25-30%, but keeping operating profit guidance unchanged at 27.5-32.5% due to the $4.4 million prior-year tax item and FX headwinds. This is a subtle but important message: the company prefers to let gross profit upside flow through rather than cut costs aggressively.
New products are also on the horizon. Pedro confirmed the imminent launch of dMore, a merchant-of-record solution, which should allow merchants to enter new markets faster and potentially capture higher take rates. This is a natural extension of the merchant of record concept. Additionally, BNPL is live in eight markets, and the company continues to invest in its platform. The World Cup sponsorship was cited as a first-half marketing cost that will not recur.
Prior calls had already hinted at these strategic pivots. In the November 2025 call, Pedro discussed the importance of remittances and the potential of stablecoins. He also mentioned the company's ambition to expand into new verticals and geographies. The acceleration we see today is the payoff of those investments.
In summary, DLocal is executing on all fronts: record TPV growth, deepening merchant relationships, and a clear path to operating leverage. The take-rate story remains a headwind, but the company's message is that volume and gross profit dollars are what matter. With the guidance raise, management is signaling confidence in the second half. The market will be watching whether the automation-driven leverage materializes as promised. If it does, DLocal could be one of the most compelling stories in payments for 2027.