The Mexican startup Stori has successfully acquired MasCaja, a popular financial society (sofipo), thereby expanding its financial offerings. The company will now be able to offer savings and investment products.
Stori has become a real option for people who previously did not have access to a credit card and those who wished to build their credit history but were rejected by traditional banks.
“After nearly two years of operating in the country, we’ve understood and learned from our artificial intelligence and Big Data models that we can treat our customers better. In this endeavor, we asked ourselves what’s next for them, and it’s basically to have a deposit account where we can also offer other types of products,” explained Salomón Woldenberg, director of Public Policies at Stori, in an exclusive interview with El Economista.
In 2022, Stori reached two million customers and currently has over 2.2 million. Last year, the company also achieved a USD $1,200 million valuation, earning it unicorn status.
The objective of this unicorn, founded in 2018, is for 80 million Mexicans to have access to a credit card. For this reason, Stori has continued to raise investment rounds to approve more credit cards.
Stori is not the first fintech to make such a purchase; other brands offering financial services have also acquired sofipos to broaden their range of products.
According to CB Insights’ State of Fintech Q2 report, fintech companies in Latin America and the Caribbean raised USD $500 million, representing a 150% increase compared to the previous quarter. Brazil leads the fintech industry’s growth, followed by Mexico, Chile, and Colombia.
Nu did the same in 2021 when it announced the purchase of a license from the popular financial institution Akala, to offer savings and investment products. This startup currently has over 3 million customers.
Other financial technology brands that have followed this path include Klar, which acquired the license from Sefia, while Bradesco acquired the license from financial institution Ictineo.
“From the beginning, it has been in our DNA to obtain licenses and do things correctly, not just quickly but well, obtaining licenses and approvals to always be a transparent player before the regulator,” Woldenberg assured.
The director of Stori is aware that acquiring MasCaja is crucial for continued growth and reaching more customers with different types of products. However, this is just the beginning of establishing themselves as an option with multiple financial solutions.
“This is an important step, but it’s just the beginning. We don’t want to stop here; we want to start expanding the range of products and services. We also want to start leveraging all the knowledge we’ve gained over the years, serving a market nobody had ever served before,” highlighted the director of Public Policies.
