Stori Raises US$200 Million In Series C

The Mexican fintech startup Stori announced today it had one of the largest Latin American Series C equity financing rounds in history after raising US$200 million in financing.

In an era of expedited digitalization, traditional Mexican banks have fallen behind in providing financial services and capital access to the country’s working and lower classes. That is where Stori saw an opportunity to bridge the gap in financial access by blending technology and finance, becoming part of a larger transformation led by startups in Mexico who are transforming access to capital by providing an alternative to historically high interest rates and a national low rate of credit card holders.

“Only 15 percent of Mexican citizens have access to credit cards and most of them are high income earners. People should have other options to build a credit history," said Marlene Garayzar, Co-Founder, Stori during MBF 2021.

In bridging that gap, Stori has found ample success. Since its Series B in February, more than 2 million Mexicans applied for a credit card, increasing its applicants over 10 times in the last year and making Stori one of the top issuers of new credit cards in the country. For its next year, Stori looks to invest the US$200 million raised during 2021 in tripling its size and broadening its suite of products. Stori also looks to continue expanding beyond Mexico as it currently holds offices in Washington DC and Asia and will double down on training to expand its mission of inclusivity within finance.

Earlier today, Stori announced a US$125 million over-subscribed round during a Seriec C equity financing round, one of the largest in Latin America to date.

The Series round saw investments from the consumer tech-focused funds General Catalyst and Goodwater Capital and was co-led by global VC GGV Capital and GIC. The rapidly-growing Stori also saw investments from Series A and B-round investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, BAI Capital, Source Code Capital and Vision Plus Capital. Stori also raised US$75 in debt financing from the debt capital provider Community Investment Management (CIM).

"Our mission – empowering financial inclusion for millions of hard-working people – is amazingly meaningful and challenging at the same time. We are progressing at an unprecedented pace by combining technology, machine learning, data-driven underwriting and an intuitive mobile-based user experience. A lot more will come in our journey to become a top consumer financial franchise in Latin America," said Stori CEO and co-Founder, Bin Chen.

Stori offers customers not just a universal digital payment card but more credit. Traditional banking systems have turned away more than 400 million people across Latin America, according to Stori’s website. This inspired creators Chen and Garayzar to create an alternative that could bridge the financial gap to credit access the region. Stori’s Series-C round investments prove how successful the company has been and will continue to be at closing the gap.