FinTech CTO — Dubai, UAE
Eric de LaGoublaye
Fifteen years building payment systems that hold up — card-to-card rails in Costa Rica, digital issuing in Dubai, mobile money in Guinea.
What I build
One payment, end to end
APP
Mobile client
API
Edge + auth
KYC
Biometric identity
RAILS
Visa · Mastercard
ISSUER
Bank / BIN
LEDGER
Settlement
The short version
Today I run engineering at Kulu — 100+ engineers across several countries, keeping high-transaction fintech infrastructure up on serverless architecture. The work I get brought in for is the part before the product exists: integrations with card networks and banks, KYC a regulator will accept, and architecture that survives launch day. Spanish, French and English, across three continents.
- Years in engineering
- 15+
- Engineers led
- 100+
- App downloads shipped
- 2M+
- Continents operated in
- 3
Technical territory
Every line below shipped in production
Serverless architecture
High transaction volume, low fixed cost
Visa & Mastercard rails
Card-to-card transfer, direct banking integrations
Card issuing
Digital issuing and expense controls — Qashio
Biometric KYC
Facephi, deployed across KSA and UAE
Mobile money
West Africa — Kulu
P2P transfers
2M+ downloads across six countries — Kash
WhatsApp Business API
Business messaging at scale — wasa.app
IoT access control
Condominiums and corporate buildings — güenas
Trajectory
Chile to Costa Rica to the Gulf
Each move followed the same question: where is the payment infrastructure still missing, and who is going to build it?
- Now
Kulu
Chief Technology Officer
UAE · Guinea, West Africa
Leading an engineering organisation of more than 100 people across several countries, running high-transaction fintech businesses. Mobile money for a market that has skipped the branch entirely.
- Mobile money
- Serverless
- Multi-country teams
- 2022
Qashio
Chief Technology Officer
UAE · KSA · EU
Joined Dubai's digital card issuer and expense-management platform as its first CTO hire from Latin America. Built out the technology team and the product behind it. Qashio took Fintech Solution of the Year in 2023 and took its KYC stack into Saudi Arabia and the UAE with Facephi.
- Card issuing
- Expense management
- KYC
- → 2022
Namutek Fintech
Chief Technology Officer
Costa Rica
Led the teams behind Visa/Mastercard and direct banking integrations for one of Central America's best-known fintechs, and built Kash — the first mobile app in Costa Rica to move money debit card to debit card over the card rails.
- Visa / Mastercard rails
- Banking integrations
- P2P
- 2015
güenas · The Founder Institute
Founder & builder
Costa Rica
Founded güenas, an IoT access-control product for condominiums and corporate buildings, and graduated from The Founder Institute Costa Rica. The startup years — where you learn how a product actually reaches its first thousand users.
- IoT
- Access control
- Early-stage
- Earlier
Intel
Engineering
Costa Rica
Where the first decade of the craft happened — large-scale systems, and the engineering discipline everything since has been built on.
- Systems
- Semiconductors
Products shipped
Seven products, three continents
Design, engineering and growth — from card rails in Central America to mobile money in West Africa.
GNAEKulu
Guinea · West Africa
Mobile money for a market building its financial rails from scratch.
100+ engineers
AESAEUQashio
UAE · KSA · EU
Digital card issuing and corporate expense management.
Fintech Solution of the Year, 2023
CRLATAMKash
Costa Rica · LatAm
Debit card to debit card transfers over Visa and Mastercard. 2M+ downloads across six countries.
2M+ downloads · 6 countries
CRgüenas
Costa Rica
IoT access control for condominiums and corporate buildings.
Featured in El Financiero
LATAMwasa.app
LatAm
Connecting businesses to customers through the WhatsApp Business API.
LATAMEntreRedes
LatAm
E-commerce built for the neighbourhood corner store.
CROasis
Costa Rica
Process automation for operations teams.
The full history
Every role, on LinkedIn
In the press
On the record
Interviews, launches and coverage — from Costa Rican national television to the Gulf fintech circuit.
- Podcast
El rol del CTO en la era de la IA, Fintech y el mercado en Dubai
On leading 100+ engineers across countries, and what AI changes about the job.
ES - Award
Fintech Solution of the Year
Qashio takes the category in the UAE.
EN - Industry
Facephi enters KSA and UAE
Biometric KYC deployed across the Gulf.
EN - Qashio
New Fintech CTO — UAE
Announced as Chief Technology Officer, arriving from Latin America.
EN - Canal 6
Aplicación financiera ayuda a facilitar trámites con dinero
Television interview on Kash.
ES - La Nación
KASH llegó para revolucionar el mercado de pagos electrónicos
Feature on the launch of card-to-card transfers in Costa Rica.
ES - CRHoy
Seguridad y rapidez: la nueva manera de transferir con Kash
On the security model behind the transfers.
ES - Teletica Canal 7
La primera app de transferencias entre tarjetas de débito en Costa Rica
National television coverage of the launch.
ES - El Financiero
Startup crea aplicación 'Güenas' para agilizar ingreso a condominios
The IoT access-control product, at launch.
ES
Education
Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María
Valparaíso, Chile
Certifications
Cyber Security for Business Leaders
University of Oxford · 2023
Founder Graduate
The Founder Institute · 2015
Incubación de Empresa
Open Future — Telefónica · 2015
DISC Assessment Evaluator
TTI Success Insights · 2015
Languages
Español
Native
Français
Native
English
Full professional
Get in touch
Building something that moves money?
Dubai, United Arab Emirates · GMT+4
Usually about
- Scaling engineering teams across countries and time zones
- Card rails, issuing and KYC — Visa, Mastercard, biometrics
- Serverless architecture under high transaction volume
- Taking a fintech product into a new market