Credit card company Stori has become the latest Mexican company to join the unicorn club, following the close of a $150m Series C-2 funding round.
This investment brings the company’s valuation to $1.2bn. Marlene Garayzar, chief governance officer and co-founder, has become the first Mexican woman to have founded a unicorn technology startup in the country.
The round included a $50m equity investment from BAI Capital, GIC, GGV Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Vision Plus Capital, Goodwater Capital, Tresalia Capital and Davidson Kempner Capital Management.
It also included a $100m debt facility from Davidson Kempner.
This Series C-2 round comes just nine months after Stori closed a $200m funding round, which is one of Latin America’s largest Series C rounds.
With the fresh capital, Stori plans to hire more staff and expand its product offering beyond the credit card. Funds will also help the FinTech company increase its geographical reach across Latin America.
Stori CEO and co-founder Bin Chen said, “This new round of investment is a significant milestone and takes us one step closer towards our vision of changing the lives of millions who are currently underserved by traditional financial institutions.
“By addressing key pain points of our customers with a simple and mobile-first experience, we hope to play a major role in democratizing credit access, making our customers’ lives easier, and supporting economic growth across Latin America.”
Founded in 2018, Stori provides underserved populations with access to credit card products. It currently boasts 1.4 million customers in Mexico. The whole user experience, from applying for the card to paying bills is all carried out through the Stori mobile app.
GGV Capital managing partner Hans Tung said, “The Stori team is a rare combination of industry background, hustle and change-the-world attitude. The market demand for inclusive financial products tuned for local markets is clear, and the results are not surprising. We continue to be excited about partnering with the Stori team as they grow across Latin America”
Last year, there were four Mexican FinTech companies to join the unicorn club. The new unicorns were crypto exchange Bitso, payments platform Clip, banking software developer Konfio and spend management service Clara.
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