June
16, 2021
5 min read
This week, Credijusto made history as the first fintech to buy a bank in Mexico . The fintech company acquired Banco Finterra for around $ 50 million. This makes it the first neobank in the country to operate with a banking license.
Neo banks are fintechs that provide the same services as any traditional bank: savings account, electronic wallet, investment instruments, and payment for services. The difference is that they do not have physical branches, but that all operations are carried out by digital means.
“Our acquisition of Banco Finterra creates the first truly digital banking platform for Mexican SMEs,” said Allan Apoj, co-founder and CEO of Credijusto, in a statement. “This acquisition marks an important milestone in Mexico and the region, and we are proud to be revolutionizing the future of banking in Latin America,” he added.
“The company’s expansion reflects a global trend of fintech firms acquiring regulated banks to enable more diversified product offerings. The acquisition doubles the size of its business and rapidly accelerates the growth of Credijusto, ” said the firm.
The transaction was completed last week, but it was until yesterday when the company announced the purchase in the United States media and confirmed it in Mexico.
We are very proud to revolutionize the future of banking in Mexico with the acquisition of Banco Finterra and thus benefit companies through new generation financial products. Learn more about this great achievement: https://t.co/pbGBVyo04p pic.twitter.com/A32vaHDOB1
– Credijusto (@credijusto) June 15, 2021
Union make force
Founded in 2015, Credijusto is an initiative of entrepreneurs David Poritz and Allan Apoj, who met at the university in 2010. During its history, the fintech has received investments of almost 400 million dollars from funds such as Point72 Ventures, Kaszek, QED Investors and John Mack, as well as financial institutions of the stature of Goldman Sachs.
The idea of buying a bank began to take shape a little over a year and a half ago, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. This after Credijusto got a line of credit for about 100 million dollars in the Swiss investment bank Credit Suisse, reveals Forbes.
In the displaced, Credijusto explains that this acquisition doubles the size of its business and rapidly accelerates its growth.
“By combining our proprietary software and data science expertise with Finterra’s banking capabilities, we are building a next-generation financial services business,” said David Poritz, co-CEO of Credijusto.
Now its objective is to cover the demand for financing “for small companies that export to the United States and vice versa.” For the following years, they plan to build a multimillion dollar portfolio between the US and Latin America, as well as carry out another bank acquisition in the North American country.
Even the ‘shark’ of Shark Tank Mexico, Marcus Dantus, congratulated them on the transaction.
Congratulations to @credijusto for the acquisition of Banco Finterra. With this acquisition, my @credijusto allies become the first company in the Mexican startup ecosystem to acquire a bank. Congratulations to Allan Apoj and David Poritz! pic.twitter.com/S3Ud4Z8DGq
– Marcus Dantus (@mdantus) June 16, 2021
For its part, Banco Finterra was established in 2016 and is specialized in providing loans to SMEs in the agricultural sector. Last April it had assets of 2,014 million pesos and a capitalization rate of 18.81%, which is equivalent to 0.02% participation in the country’s banking sector, according to data from the National Banking and Securities Commission. Until that month, it had the highest loan portfolio in the sector, which amounted to 1,608 million pesos (21,335).
“We are very excited about this next phase of the bank and the future benefits for Mexican companies, taking advantage of Credijusto’s technology, agility and service,” said Mark McCoy, CEO of Banco Finterra.