Technology with Purpose: When Innovation Has a Name

In Latin America, technology doesn’t arrive like a wave. It arrives like a rumor. It spreads from chat to chat, from neighborhood to neighborhood, from person to person. It is a region where digitalization doesn’t happen on servers, but on phones; where change is not dictated by algorithms, but by conversation. That’s why I believe the greatest challenge is not to innovate faster, but to innovate with more empathy. Technology is not imposed: it is discussed.

For years, the debate about digital inclusion focused on infrastructure: how many people have access to the Internet, an account, or a smartphone. But the deepest gap is not access, it is language. It’s not enough to be connected if technology still doesn’t speak to us in our language. That is why many of the advances we celebrate in the capitals still don’t transform life in the neighborhoods.

At dale!, we learned that true innovation doesn’t always look sophisticated. Sometimes it resembles the everyday: a WhatsApp conversation, a nickname lovingly written on a storefront window. That’s why Nombres con Calle was born, an initiative that seeks to make visible the popular businesses that sustain the economy of our neighborhoods. Through the Tag Aval key, any store, stand, or enterprise can have its own digital name (@DonaMartaStore, @FloresDeInes) and use it to charge or receive money. Identity is the first step toward inclusion.

The next step was natural: bringing the possibility of receiving payments to the place where daily life already happens. Today, businesses can receive payments directly through WhatsApp, using their Tag Aval Key within the interoperable Bre-b ecosystem. This is not just a technical alliance, but a simple conviction: if most Colombians live, converse, and trust WhatsApp, then that must also be the space for their financial inclusion. We don’t need people to move to technology; we need technology to move to the people.

This approach aligns with what we defend in our 2024 Sustainability Report: technology must have a measurable and social purpose. It is not a responsibility accessory; it is the essence of the business. Incorporating ESG criteria means understanding that inclusion is not measured by downloads, but by trust, by more transparent relationships, and by tools that dignify work.

Sustainability is not achieved by adding users, but by multiplying opportunities.

Latin America is a land of ingenuity. Across the region, unique forms of digitalization arise that combine creativity, collaboration, and closeness. Brazil demonstrated this with Pix, Peru with its community wallets, and Colombia with its network of local businesses that make service and trust a form of living economy.

The neighborhood is the region’s first innovation laboratory.

Not because it lacks, but because it creates: because it transforms every conversation into possibility.

I have seen the look light up in a merchant’s eyes when they see their name printed on their Tag Aval Key. There, in that small gesture, something profound happens: recognition. What was once invisible now has identity. And that, on a continent where progress is often measured in numbers, is a human victory. At dale!, we will continue building technology that is not only used but understood.

Because when innovation is discussed (not imposed), it not only transforms businesses: it transforms cultures.