MEXICO CITY, Sept 7 (Reuters) – Mexican fintech Stori on Thursday announced the acquisition of MasCaja, a financial firm that will give it a license to expand its product portfolio in a market where many lack access to financial services.
Stori, which didn’t say how much it paid for the acquisition, said it could expand from credit cards and introduce new saving and investing services in the coming months.
“We want to take the next step in promoting financial inclusion,” Marlene Garayzar, co-founder of Stori, told Reuters.
Stori, which achieved unicorn status last year, is already offering credit cards with lines starting at 500 Mexican pesos ($28) in a country where government data shows less than 35% of the adult population has formal credit feature.
Savings accounts follow this pattern, with less than half of the adult population owning one.
Earlier this year, Stori claimed to have reached 2 million users.
Non-bank lenders based in Mexico have come under financial pressure to become licensed banks to lend customer deposits instead of relying on the credit markets.
Other Latin American fintechs have taken steps to tap into Mexico’s underserved market this year, including Argentine unicorn Uala, which launched a high-yield savings account in June after acquiring Mexico’s ABC Capital Bank.
Brazilian lender Nubank saw more than a million people sign up for its savings account just a month after it opened in May. It acquired the same license as Stori late last year.
($1 = 17.5722 Mexican pesos)
Reporting by Valentine Hilaire; Edited by Leslie Adler
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Comments are closed.