Aplazo bags $45B from QED investors to expand BNPL in Mexico
Mexican fintech Aplazo concluded its $70 million Series B, including an additional $45 million in fresh equity financing in a round led by QED investors.
Since its establishment in 2020, the Buy Now Pay Later fintech, now four years old, has amassed over $100 million in equity financing and $75 million in committed debt funding. In the latest round, Volpe Capital and QED, alongside existing venture capital investors Oak HC/FT, Kaszek, and Picus Capital, contributed to the funding.
Aplazo provides end users with a virtual card that enables them to make purchases at numerous stores with the option to defer payment until later. The fintech specializes in these fractionated payments for offline and online merchants, serving buyers without credit card access.
“Aplazo set out to become the preferred payment method in Mexico through fair, simple and transparent financial solutions, rather than traditional credit products that lure users into a debt trap,” said Angel Peña, CEO and co-founder of Aplazo. “This behavior has been common practice in Mexico over the past decades, and we put the consumer at the core of our fair payment solutions offering.”
A tangible alternative to cash
In countries such as Mexico, where there’s a substantial underbanked population, BNPL platforms like Aplazo offer a tangible alternative to cash. The company said it would apply the additional capital to double down on its BNPL product offering and develop AI capabilities to better service its behavioural analysis of clients and merchants.
“We act as a growth lever for our partner merchants to drive new customers and incremental sales online and in-store,” said Aplazo co-founder Alex Wieland.
Lending to the underbanked in Latin America does not come without risk, prompting fintechs to rely more and more on novel technologies to predict consumer behavior and improve risk assessments before granting loans.
The company said its loss rates were in the low single digits, positioning itself as “one of the lowest in the country.” The firm said almost 40 per cent of Aplazo’s users lack a credit history, yet its approval rate for loan requests exceeds 80 per cent.
Aplazo is now “near breakeven”
The company said this financing round follows a threefold increase in revenue, driven by the expansion of its market share among online and offline merchants in Mexico. In a press release, the firm said it has been operating “near breakeven” in the last couple of months.
Aplazo has emerged as one of the main fintech players in the Mexican BNPL space by targeting the offline retail market, estimated to account for about 93 percent of total retail sales in Mexico. It said in-store transactions now contribute to over half of its business.
“We see an opportunity to provide deeper engagement with our customers as they start to transact more frequently with us,” Peña said, adding that Aplazo’s BNPL product “resonates well with the underserved Mexican population.”
QED partner and head of Latam Mike Packer celebrated the deal. “Angel and Alex have surrounded themselves with a world-class team that we believe is just scratching the surface on the consumer and merchant payments opportunity in Mexico.” The firm’s regional portfolio spans other fintech companies like Bitso, Creditas, Credit Karma, Konfio, and Nubank.
