USEND: Innovative Product for International Remittances, Built by Luby
Pontual Money Transfer Group, founded in 2005, set out to solve the challenges immigrants face when transferring money internationally — becoming the leading company for transactions between the U.S., Canada, and Brazil.
In 2016, it handled 25% of all remittances sent by immigrants to Brazil. To expand into new markets, Pontual partnered with Luby to build USEND in 2018 — a digital platform for payments and international transfers.
The solution stood out for its innovation and technology, and in 2022 it was acquired by Banco Inter as part of its internationalization strategy. Today, USEND is fully integrated into Banco Inter's app and is used by millions worldwide.
Innovation
International money transfers in the U.S. were still a highly manual service — with 95% of remittances processed through partner agents. Luby's main challenge was to support the creation of a specialized platform that could digitize this entire operation, making remittances faster and more accessible.
To ensure the solution effectively solved Pontual Group's users' main pain points, Luby began with a Discovery phase, where we:
- Designed the product roadmap based on top customer needs.
- Defined MVP development strategies.
- Evaluated technical feasibility and project costs.
- Determined required time, team, and resources.
After this, Luby developed the MVP from the ground up — designing the architecture together with the client for performance and scalability — and delivering a complete, end-to-end digital remittance product.
Cyber Security
Cybersecurity for financial transactions is critical, especially for multi-country operations like USEND. To mitigate risks and ensure security, Luby deployed its expertise in integrity and fraud prevention systems, including:
LexisNexis ThreatMetrix
Integration of LexisNexis ThreatMetrix, a digital identity and authentication tool to prevent fraud and enable AML/KYC policies.
Multidisciplinary Security Team
Multidisciplinary security team working across all levels of the system.
Result: a robust, compliant platform meeting global anti-fraud and anti-money-laundering standards.
Evolution
Once the initial solution was validated and proven effective, the Luby team scaled up to enter the evolution phase. Following a continuous delivery and iterative methodology, a dedicated squad (backend, mobile, UX, and PO) worked to evolve the platform quickly and strategically.
Together with Pontual, we:
- Conducted market benchmarking to identify opportunities.
- Gathered user feedback to refine features.
This led to several new functionalities, including:
International remittances to more countries
Digital accounts for customers
Debit cards for international transactions
Outcome: an efficient, high-performance mobile app that enables transfers across multiple currencies — offering users a fast, reliable, and cost-effective experience.
Key Integrations & Intelligence
Key Integrations
Brazilian Bank Integration
Direct integration with a Brazilian bank for validating, issuing, and settling remittances and bill payments. This integration, driven by Brazilian user feedback, allowed boleto payments through USEND — a highly popular payment method in Brazil.
Paykii Integration
Integration with Paykii, part of the Tribal Group, which manages payments in Europe and Asia. This enabled global transactions within the same platform.
Data Analytics & Intelligence
Luby also helped Pontual unlock valuable insights from USEND's financial transaction data through custom BI and Data Analytics workstreams.
Business Intelligence Dashboard
A custom BI dashboard built in JavaScript, consolidating transactional data into actionable business metrics.
DataMinds Platform
Developed in Java, which created a data pipeline aggregating real-time market pricing data from multiple sources — enabling competitive rate analysis for strategic decision-making.
Impact: better data visibility, stronger market positioning, and improved decision-making.
Experience
Enhancing user experience was a core challenge, as the product needed to serve users from 40+ countries in multiple languages and cultures.
Luby's customer experience team studied and implemented a global support platform — Zendesk — offering multilingual customer service and scalable support for USEND's international user base.
Result: faster, more personalized support and higher satisfaction rates.
Results
The Outcomes of This Strategic Partnership:
customers in the first year
users with product access
countries supported
Leader in remittances between Latin America and the U.S.
Luby is an innovative and committed company. Its developers are highly skilled and capable of addressing client needs. I am very satisfied to have Luby as a partner and confident in tackling the most challenging tasks.
Wilson Baraban Filho
CTO, Pontual Money Transfer