Credit card-led fintech Stori announced Thursday its had closed a $125 million over-subscribed Series C round co-led by GGV Capital and growth-stage investor GIC – marking one of the largest Series C equity financing rounds in Latin America to date. Accompanying the equity round, Stori also snagged $75 million in debt financing from impact-focused, debt capital provider Community Investment Management (CIM).
Other investors in the round included General Catalyst and Goodwater Capital, alongside previous investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Vision Plus Capital, BAI Capital and Source Code Capital. Mexico-based Tresalia Capital also participated, making its first fintech investment.
After the team spent its first two years building out the startup’s infrastructure and platform, Stori began providing credit cards with “a 100% mobile app-based experience” to the middle income population in Mexico.
In January 2020, Stori launched its credit card product in Mexico and has already seen more than 2 million Mexicans apply or the card – 10x the number of applications in the past twelve months.
For Mexico, credit card usage is less ubiquitous than the credit-leaden US. According to World Bank statistics, only 37% of Mexicans over 15 years old have a bank account, with an estimated 86% of all payments in Mexico being that of cash.
“Mexico is the fastest growing e-commerce market in the world. It has one of the top 15 economies in the world. Yet, less than 15% of Mexicans have access to credit cards,” said Mercedes Bent, Partner at Lightspeed following Stori’s Series B round in February.
For Stori, entering that market means giving credit access to over 400 million underserved consumers in both Mexico and Latin America.
Following the cards launch, Chen recounted how almost two decades ago, one credit card saved him financially and heped to laumch his career. Now, he wants to do the same via Stori’s AI based platform. Stori accredits a great deal of its success to its team and said it will use the latest funding to broaden its suite of products, double down on training and development, and triple in size.
“We are progressing at an unprecedented pace by combining technology, machine learning, data-driven underwriting and an intuitive mobile-based user experience. A lot more will come in our journey to become a top consumer financial franchise in Latin America” said Stori CEO and co-founder, Bin Chen.