Built without code: How dLocal and Primer set a new standard for payment integrations

In under a decade, dLocal went from a startup in Uruguay to a billion-dollar payments infrastructure company, connecting the world's biggest companies to consumers across the emerging markets everyone else considered too complex to crack.

So when Primer presented a fundamentally new way for payment providers to build and own their integrations, dLocal didn't hesitate. They put their hand up to be the first to try it. 

That meant becoming the first-ever partner for Primer for Partners, a new way for payment service providers (PSPs), alternative payment methods (APMs), and fraud tools to build integrations directly into Primer on their own timeline, without writing a single line of code. No engineering queue, no reverse API, no SDK, and no waiting on someone else's roadmap. Once live, they’re instantly available to every merchant on Primer’s global network. 

This is the story of what dLocal and Primer built together, and why the rest of the industry should pay attention.

Payment integrations: from simplified to self-serve

Getting a payments provider live on a new platform has always been a slow, coordination-heavy process. It was the industry standard: multiple engineering teams, multiple roadmaps, and a build process that neither side fully controlled. 

For any payments provider looking to expand its reach, that meant progress moved at someone else's pace. If a merchant needed a specific payment method and it hadn't been prioritized yet, everyone waited. The opportunity was there, but the process was the constraint.

Primer had already simplified it significantly, with over 150 connections and a growing network of merchants and providers. But one question remained: could the integration process become truly self-serve?

That’s what Primer for Partners was built to answer, and dLocal was there from the very beginning to help bring it to life.

Faster for partners, better for merchants

When Thomas Pasterk, Principal Product Manager on Primer's Partners team, first walked dLocal through Primer for Partners, the value was clear from the outset. 

"What made it feel like a different category was the ability for us to add payment methods ourselves using a no-code tool. This removed the need for ongoing back-and-forth during integrations, significantly speeding up the process. As a result, we could deliver a better and more efficient service to merchants,” Horacio says.

Unlike a reverse API, Primer for Partners puts dLocal entirely in control of its own connection to Primer. As Horacio puts it: “A reverse API would have required a dedicated team on our side to build and maintain the integration in the traditional way, with a counterpart team on the partner side to ensure everything worked correctly.” 

Primer for Partners removes that dependency entirely.

Building at the frontier, together

For dLocal, the decision to go first was an easy one. It saw a clear opportunity to help merchants across Primer's global network expand into new regions, and it committed its team's time to making it happen.

As the first partner for Primer for Partners, dLocal worked closely alongside Primer’s team, sharing feedback, flagging friction points, and shaping how the product evolved. 

"These ongoing discussions helped us understand the platform's goals and the experience it aimed to deliver to end users. We kept this perspective in mind throughout testing to ensure the final result met the highest standards, both technically and in terms of user experience," Horacio says.

 "The relationship improved as both teams communicated more closely, and overall, it was a positive experience that strengthened our partnership."

From Primer’s perspective, the impact was just as clear.

Connected, configured, and live

Once the groundwork was done, the payoff was immediate. dLocal's sales engineers built their full production integration in less than a day.

"It's a very smooth and intuitive solution to use. Naturally, you're already looking for the right place to make a configuration."

And they didn't stop at a basic card setup. dLocal added multiple payment methods themselves, entirely within the platform, without touching their engineering roadmap. With more capabilities in the pipeline, this is just the beginning. "The range of options for configuring a transaction is extensive, from simple scenarios to technically complex ones, and the platform makes it all straightforward to enable."

And with the connection going live quickly, onboarding Primer merchants takes minutes.

What this means for the payments industry

This story points to something bigger than just one partnership. 

For years, the pace at which payment capabilities reached merchants was determined by whoever had the engineering bandwidth to prioritize the work first. It was a question of which solution made it to the front of the queue, not which one was best. 

Primer for Partners changes that dynamic entirely. When any payments provider can connect to Primer on its own timeline, the whole ecosystem moves faster. And for the first time, a leading global payment processor built and launched a full production connection into Primer’s platform, without writing a single line of code. 

As Primer's first partner, dLocal also worked closely alongside the team to bring Primer for Partners to life, and came out the other side with a richer, more capable integration than would have been possible before.

With Primer for Partners, the payments ecosystem builds itself. Any payments provider can connect independently, and be instantly available to a global network of merchants the moment they go live, with Primer as the common layer that powers it all. 

dLocal had the conviction to move first, and together with Primer, set a new standard for the industry. And we’re just getting started.