The creators of an application to pay bills using a cell phone, Marcelo Lanfranconi and Leonardo Vernazza, have won the New Banking category in the Open Talent awards. They were the only Uruguayan team to reach the finals.

Since Uruguay’s defeat of host nation Brazil at the 1950 World Cup, the country has earned a just reputation as an underdog to be reckoned with, and this repeat performance in the business world is a rallying cry to other local startups. This time, it was Paganza’s turn to shine. The time-saving Uruguayan cell phone app that allows its users to pay their bills without having to wait in line took home the BBVA Open Talent award, this year presented at the Red Innova event in Buenos Aires on 25 and 26 June.

The app’s developers Marcelo Lanfranconi and Leonardo Vernazza – who started work on it in November 2012 – took the top spot from a shortlist of 20 finalists, selected from 900 entrants from around the world, including another nine Uruguayan entries.

With Queen’s We Are the Champions playing and patriotic Uruguayan chants sounding from among the international attendees, Vernazza and Lanfranconi took the stage as the winners of the award for New Banking, one of the two categories in the contest.

“It’s incredible for Uruguay to win a global technology contest” said Lanfranconi, speaking to Café & Negocios Emprendedores just moments after the awards ceremony.

Keeping a lid on hopes

The Paganza team arrived in Buenos Aires proud to have made the shortlist but with little expectation of winning. “900 startups from around the world entered the competition, so we were trying to keep a lid on our hopes”, said Lanfranconi.

Vernazza added that in global contests, there is no way of knowing what the key differences are between the startups involved.

“There were projects that have received an investment of US$4 million from Silicon Valley. Our project might have been very good, but you never know who you’re up against”, he said.

They took cheer from Uruguay’s past win, with Alan Kind and Martín Larre’s Kidbox project bringing home the crown in 2011; that recent memory encouraged them to enter, particularly as their app was a perfect match for the contest’s guidelines – looking for new projects to revitalize banking.

They were also spurred on by the public vote, run through the BBVA Open Talent website. Lanfranconi explained that he and his partner were keen to gauge their users’ support using this poll. Although the public favorite turned out to be the Spanish startup Unicoos – a YouTube channel with science videos for students – Paganza was top among the Uruguayan entries.

The partners stated that this prize gives them a solid image in the banking system, a key attribute for a new system like Paganza.

To date, they have signed agreements with five banks in the country. Three of these partnerships are already active, with the banks Itaú, BBVA, BROU, providing access to some 70% of bank users. Over the ten months since the project was launched, it has grown steadily, doubling its user base every month. The next challenge is to form agreements with more banks. The pair’s intention is to provide access for all bank users by the end of the year. They also plan to expand into neighboring countries.