From zero to Revolutionizing Payments in LATAM - our CEO's journey

A few months ago, our CEO Leonardo Mazzo was on the cover of the latest edition of Trendsetter Bolivia! Discover the story of one of the great minds behind SmartFastPay and how his experiences have shaped our excellence in the fintech world.

Leonardo Mazzo: From zero to Revolutionizing Payments in LATAM

At 35 years old, Leonardo Mazzo has a story that seems straight out of a movie script: ex-military, shoe store owner, food franchisee, barber, and even an entrepreneur in the chicken feet export business. But it was after hitting rock bottom, following a bankruptcy that plunged him into depression, that he found his true purpose: connecting Latin America through payment technology. Today, as CEO of SmartFastPay, he leads the expansion of one of the most promising fintechs in the region. In this edition, Trendsetter presents his inspiring path of resilience and vision.

Everything started among shoe boxes. “My trajectory in the business world started early, when I was still organizing shoe boxes in the first business of my father, who worked many years at Volkswagen in Brazil,” recalls Leonardo Mazzo. Born and raised in southern Brazil, Leo learned the basics of commerce as a child, helping his family in a multi-brand shoe store in Curitiba, Paraná. After the death of his grandfather, the family decided to sell all their businesses and return to their hometown, Itajaí, in Santa Catarina, where Leo currently resides. There, his father not only resumed the shoe business but also opened a magazine, book, and gift shop. At just 16 years old, Leo was in charge of managing this new store. “That’s where my life as an entrepreneur began,” he affirms.

After completing his mandatory military service in the Brazilian Navy at 18, Leo returned hungrier for business. He tried his luck exporting chicken feet with Chinese suppliers, dabbled in foreign trade intermediation, and expanded into the world of food franchises with DNA Natural, a health food store. Then came a custom furniture store and even a barbershop. But the empire collapsed. “This whole business empire went down the drain, and I faced my first bankruptcy — a harsh lesson that being an entrepreneur is not easy,” he confesses frankly. “Years of work and dedication were reduced to zero, and I was still in debt. It is very difficult to deal with all this: we suffer political instabilities, problems we cannot control… a contractual error led us down this path.”

Months of depression and reflection followed. It was then that a friend from the tech world opened his eyes to a universe that was right in front of him without him seeing it. “I never thought I would be a computer geek like I am today,” he admits with a laugh. “But I understood that money connects everything. Processing payments, connecting people to their desires through technology… that was the key.” The problem was the starting point: he was broke. To top it off, Brazil does not make it easy for the entrepreneur, with its bureaucratic and fiscal labyrinth. So Leo started over from the humblest place possible: a bar. Or rather, a “boutique,” as he affectionately describes that tavern where he spent from 7 in the morning to 11 at night, every day, from Monday to Monday.

And every real he earned behind the bar, he invested in hiring developers to create an API that would connect with banks and offer payment services to international companies. Everything was manual. While serving beers, he processed payments himself by hand. The turning point came with the launch of PIX in Brazil. “PIX not only revolutionized the way people made payments, but it brought technology to those who didn’t even have a bank account,” he explains. International companies started looking for his services. The company began to grow. But Leo understood something fundamental: to reach large clients and sustain himself in the market, he needed to leave Brazil. And not just to another city, but to other countries. “It’s funny how some Europeans view Latin America — they think all countries are the same, but it’s the exact opposite.”

Thus began the expansion. The first destination was Colombia, where he lived for six months to soak up the culture, laws, and local payment methods. That experience confirmed that to succeed in the region, he needed to do the same in every country. The goal was ambitious: to become a reference in payments throughout Latin America. Aware that doing it alone would take too much time, he made a strategic decision: partnering with a major Canadian group with payment experience in Europe and Asia. Thanks to this alliance, in 2024 SmartFastPay expanded to five new countries.

Today, the company operates in eight Latin American countries: Brazil, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, and Argentina, with its sights set on Central America. Of all of them, Bolivia particularly caught his attention. “There was a great difficulty with payments there, either due to a lack of technology or because other international companies had tried and failed.” Leo saw a strategic opportunity. He invested in offices, staff, and local alliances. “Nothing in the company today is done by chance, but with study,” he emphasizes.

Currently, with the support of strategic allies to comply with regulations, SmartFastPay is in the process of obtaining the new regulatory license in Bolivia. “That will provide us with even more security and professionalism, which is what we want for the Bolivian market and for the company.” From serving beers while manually processing payments to leading a fintech present in almost a dozen countries, Leonardo Mazzo’s story is a testament that, sometimes, it is necessary to hit rock bottom to find one’s true purpose. And he is clear about it: connecting Latin America through technology, one payment at a time.

Interview Q&A

1. For those who still do not know SmartFastPay, how would you explain in a simple way what it solves and why it is relevant today?

SmartFastPay is, in essence, a payment processor. But let’s put it in simple terms: think of everything you do digitally that involves money—a purchase in an e-commerce store, a transaction on a trading platform, a subscription to a service. Each of those operations needs a safe, fast, and reliable bridge connecting the buyer to the seller. We are that bridge.

We do the same thing as card machines, but in the digital universe. However, there is a key difference: many large international companies want to reach markets like Bolivia, but they run into technological, regulatory, and operational barriers that prevent them from doing it alone. We solve exactly that problem. We connect both ends—buyer and seller—quickly, efficiently, and, most importantly, adapted to the local reality of each country. No matter where you are, we make sure the money arrives.

2. What motivated you to create SmartFastPay and what market need did you see that others didn’t see?

SmartFastPay was born in a moment of personal reinvention—and that is a fundamental part of its essence. When you lose everything and need to rebuild from scratch, you don’t choose the easy path. You choose the path with the most purpose.

In that process, I saw something few had noticed: payment is the great universal connector. Every exchange, every transaction, every commercial relationship inevitably goes through a payment method. And there, I detected a huge gap between what companies needed and what was actually available, especially in Latin America. But what motivates me most to this day is not the technical process itself, but what payment technology can unlock. It is a gateway. When you solve a company’s payment problem, you become part of its ecosystem. And from there, opportunities arise to develop new products, new solutions, new collaborations.

SmartFastPay is not just a financial tool. It is a connection platform.

3. Why did you decide to focus on Bolivia in this expansion stage and what opportunities do you see in the country’s financial ecosystem?

Bolivia has been off the radar for a long time—and precisely because of that, it became a strategic country for us. Many companies arrived, tried, and failed. The difficulty of connecting with local banks and the technological lag in payment methods created barriers that pushed international players away. But today, with platforms like Yapé gaining ground among Bolivian consumers, we are seeing a real shift. And when the consumer adopts a digital payment method, companies across all sectors grow with them.

I saw this phenomenon up close in Brazil with PIX. The number of transactions skyrocketed, popular banking multiplied, and entire markets opened up. PIX not only changed how people pay but brought technology to those who never had access before. And that exact same movement is starting now in Bolivia. That is why we are truly investing: our own offices, a local corporate team, strategic alliances with Bolivian providers, and the development of a payment product exclusively for the Bolivian market. Nothing we do here is by chance. We have the strategic advice of PPO and are in the process of applying for the country’s new regulatory license, which will give us even more security and credibility to operate.

And I will tell you something with conviction: Bolivia is going to grow massively in the next 5 years. In all my travels around the world, more and more international brands ask me about the country—about the exchange rate, how the local market works, about the opportunities. I feel like I’ve become an ambassador for Bolivia to the world. And that fills me with pride.

4. As a fintech entrepreneur, what do you think needs to change in Latin America for financial innovation to truly take off?

The answer begins with one word: unawareness. Fintechs arrived to make life easier for people and companies—with lower costs, higher added value, and enormous potential to scale businesses of all sizes. But regulators and authorities, in many cases, simply were not prepared for this. And what is not understood is feared. Therefore, every time we enter a new country—whether to apply for a license or to meet with the regulator—I don’t just present myself as an entrepreneur seeking approval. I present myself as a partner who wants to share knowledge. I bring all of SmartFastPay’s international background, I show what we have built in 8 countries, I present data, concrete cases, results.

We need to maintain direct, honest, and open conversations with decision-makers in the regulatory sphere. Innovation and regulation are not enemies: they must go hand in hand. When this happens, the entire ecosystem wins: the consumer, the company, the government, and the country. Latin America has a unique energy. It has creativity, resilience, and a massive, still underserved market. We just need to break down the barriers of unawareness—and that is achieved through dialogue, transparency, and concrete results.

Check out the original interview on the Trend Setter Bolivia website.