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. 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.
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. 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.