Anti-Fraud Engines Boost Approvals, Cut E-Commerce Losses: Koin

Q: What was the business opportunity that led to the creation of Koin?

A: Koin is a fintech company specialized in simplifying digital commerce, enabling businesses to connect with their customers in an easy, secure, and efficient way. With robust Fraud Prevention and Payment Gateway solutions, Koin fosters a safer online environment across Latin America, facilitating transactions and ensuring a smooth experience for both merchants and consumers. A pioneer in Brazil in the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) model and Pix Installments, Koin democratizes access to credit by allowing merchants to offer installment payment options without the need for a credit card.

Q: What is Koin's strategic position within the digital payments and fraud prevention ecosystem in Mexico and Latin America?

A: We operate as an integrated fintech platform offering payments and fraud prevention services to e-commerce merchants across Latin America. Our workforce includes nearly 400 employees, with 45% dedicated to product and IT roles. Over the past 12 months, our platform processed over US$11 billion in transaction volume and generated US$50 million in revenue. Since 3Q23, we have operated at break-even, which positions us for scalable growth. Mexico is a strategic market for us, driven by an e-commerce sector expected to double in value from about US$40 billion to over US$80 billion by 2027.

Q: What key factors differentiate Koin from other fintechs offering installment payment or e-commerce fraud prevention solutions?

A: Our key differentiator lies in our anti-fraud engine, not in payment aggregation. Our proprietary machine learning model is trained on a vast dataset of transactions from every Latin American country. Combined with our locally embedded teams, this gives us a granular understanding of regional fraud patterns. A single API gives merchants access to our full stack, but it is our data depth and technological sophistication in fraud detection that set us apart.

Q: How does the AI system behind Koin anti-fraud enhance accuracy and reduce false positives?

A: Our AI-driven fraud engine is designed to maximize approval of legitimate transactions rather than merely blocking suspicious ones. We maintain a fraud rate below 0.1%, compared to a market average of 3%-4%, and achieve an approval rate of 98.5%. According to the Merchant Risk Council, this performance equates to 30 times less fraud and five times fewer false rejections than industry standards. We analyze thousands of behavioral and contextual variables, and a dedicated manual review team feeds back insights to continuously retrain the model.

Q: What has been the tangible impact on conversion metrics and average ticket size for merchants that integrate Pix Parcelado at their checkout?

A: Pix Parcelado enables merchants in Brazil to capture transactions that would otherwise be lost due to insufficient credit limits. This is particularly impactful in high-ticket sectors like tourism and electronics. Our dynamic, risk-based pricing model supports over 200 different rate tiers, allowing us to extend credit to a broader consumer base. As a result, merchants experience increased conversion rates and expanded market reach through greater financial inclusivity.

Q: What are the technical and operational requirements to integrate the BNPL solution into an online store operating in Mexico or Latin America?

A: Integration is streamlined via a single API that connects merchants to our entire solution stack, which includes payments, fraud prevention, and BNPL. We offer plug-and-play compatibility with major e-commerce platforms such as VTEX, Shopify, and Yuno, Deuna , and are also integrated with leading payment aggregators. While Pix Parcelado is exclusive to Brazil, our consumer finance product in Mexico is active through our partnership with Despegar and BestDay and is focused on the tourism sector.

Q: How do you balance access to financing with robust risk and validation criteria to not compromise the customer's financial health?

A: We use a hybrid scoring model that combines traditional credit bureau data with alternative signals, such as device metadata and digital footprint indicators, to construct retail-specific risk profiles. This allows for risk-adjusted pricing tailored to each transaction context. Consumers demonstrating responsible payment behavior are eligible for significantly lower interest rates over time — sometimes as low as 20% of their original rate — promoting both financial inclusion and long-term affordability.

Q: How do Koin’s anti-fraud capabilities benefit the end-user?

A: Our system delivers a seamless user experience with over 98% of transactions approved automatically. In edge cases, we apply adaptive friction techniques, such as WhatsApp-based verification, rather than blanket rejections, preserving user trust and conversion rates. On the consumer finance front, users gain full transparency after their first transaction through the Koin app, which provides real-time access to loan history, payment schedules, and available credit. The app also includes a merchant marketplace with exclusive offers, creating a closed-loop ecosystem that increases repeat engagement and customer lifetime value.

Q: How prepared is the Mexican market for the adoption of innovative payment solutions and proactive risk management?

A: While e-commerce in Mexico is expanding rapidly, risk management practices remain relatively underdeveloped. Many merchants prioritize fraud minimization but overlook the revenue lost due to high false positive rates. A key growth lever lies in increasing approval rates safely, not simply rejecting more transactions. As fraud sophistication increases, the demand for localized, AI-driven solutions that can accurately identify trustworthy customers will become a competitive imperative.

Q: What regulatory or financial changes in Latin America could accelerate or hinder the adoption of solutions like those offered by Koin?

A: The evolution of instant payment systems, such as Pix in Brazil, has been a strong catalyst for digital and financial inclusion, directly benefiting e-commerce. The next transformative shift will come from the regional adoption of true Open Finance frameworks. Our model relies on granular, secure access to consumer data, which enables us to deliver personalized credit and fraud prevention products. Regulatory advances that facilitate data portability will unlock more accurate underwriting and broader credit access.

Q: What are Koin’s short-term expansion plans for Mexico and other Spanish-speaking markets?

A: We are allocating over US$5 million annually to platform development, with a strategic focus on tripling our operational footprint in Mexico. As our second-largest market, Mexico presents a major opportunity for scaling our anti-fraud platform. We aim to onboard a significant share of merchants who lack advanced fraud prevention solutions and demonstrate how improved approval rates can drive revenue growth.

Q: What new features or complementary products will you add to your BNPL solution to address other liquidity or e-commerce experience needs?

A: Our immediate priority in Mexico is to expand BNPL beyond the tourism vertical, a process that will commence next year. We are refining our credit scoring algorithms using localized data sources to ensure risk-adjusted scalability. While we are exploring future features like virtual credit cards, our focus is on enhancing the core machine learning models that power credit decisions. This foundation is essential for long-term product expansion and operational resilience.