The firm seeks to become a viable alternative to illegal credit options. In its first year, it plans to serve 350,000 Colombians.
“The first time I had a job, I went to a bank to apply for a loan and they kindly told me that I had to have six months of work history to receive the requested amount. So, how can you start your credit life? It happened to me working under a formal modality, but employees in the informal sector don’t even have a way to certify their experience,” says Carlos Ayalde, the new CEO of Stori Colombia, a fintech specialized in providing loans to unbanked users, about his first approach to traditional banking.
Today, anyone in Latin America can request a loan, but not everyone has guaranteed access. Likewise, financial education is not widespread to prevent long-term debt. We are talking about a region with high rates of economic vulnerability and informal employment. The latter often denies millions of citizens the possibility of accessing a bank account.
However, in recent years, various startups have appeared to cover this need in a secure manner. One of the emblematic cases is Stori, a unicorn born in Mexico in 2020, which allows users to apply for a credit card through its mobile application. The user does not need to have an extensive credit history or complex vouchers. Both the application and the management of the card are done virtually, allowing users to track their expenses and payments continuously.
It is worth noting that in Mexico, the informality rate has decreased in the last six years, but it still reaches 54.3% in 2024, according to the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE). This would explain much of Stori's sustained success: the company has reached three million customers in four years. Halfway through this period, they reached another milestone: in July 2022, they raised a financing round of US$ 150 million, which valued the company at US$ 1.2 billion.
Since the end of August, Stori's new goal is to gain a presence in Colombia, a country that serves as a gateway to South America and with characteristics similar to Mexico, such as a massive economically active population (22 million people, according to DANE in January 2024), as well as high rates of informality (55.9% in July).
In this scenario, Carlos Ayalde, the new CEO of Stori Colombia, spoke with AméricaEconomía about the expectations surrounding this first international foray of a startup , which includes freedom and tranquility as principles of its slogan.
“What we seek to convey with freedom in Stori is to give people access to very high-quality financial services and products, but also control over their finances and lives. In Mexico and Colombia, there is still a very high percentage of people without access to financial credit products. So we set out to democratize that possibility,” says Ayalde.
While the slogan “tranquility” refers to users feeling safe when using the Stori credit card, to achieve this goal, the startup provides financial education lessons through its application, focused on savings and credit management. According to Ayalde, this digital advice is key to preventing the use of illegal credit options, which can even endanger the integrity of users.
“The fact that there are adults in Colombia without access to bank credit does not mean that they do not get into debt. They do, but they resort to “drop by drop loans,” which are an illegal and completely abusive practice. Because people basically take out a loan with someone who is going to charge them rates that are completely out of the ordinary and who is also going to exert horrible pressure to get them to return the money, even resorting to physical violence,” the CEO admits.
It is in this scenario that Stori seeks to intervene as a viable option that offers loans adapted to the financial situation of each member, as well as charging interest rates in accordance with local legislation. For Colombian clients, the startup offers the S card, which is requested via WhatsApp. “It asks for your ID number, where you live, among other questions that feed our analysis engine to make an offer to a person without paperwork, lines or travel,” explains Ayalde.
The executive maintains that the added value of the S card lies in this easy access, the opportunity to give a second chance to those excluded from the financial system and gradual training in personal finance management. This last point is important, because as the product is aimed at users without experience in the use of credit cards, the platform lends them low amounts such as 100,000 Colombian pesos (US$ 23.7).
Once the client's transparency is proven, Stori increases the credit limit it provides. It is worth noting that to train the user in financial education, the company uses interactive games or educational videos that encourage savings or prevent credit card theft.
ADDED VALUE AND EXPANSION PLANS
In general terms, Stori seeks to replicate with this product the success achieved in Mexico with the Mastercard credit card. This was organized to have a 99% approval rate: in other words, if 100 people applied for the card, 99 would get at least one offer to obtain it. Ayalde assures that such a model is novel in Latin America and was key for Stori to obtain its license as a Popular Financial Company (Sofipo) in the Aztec country in 2023. Already under the supervision of the National Banking and Securities Commission of Mexico, the company launched savings accounts and a new product: Stori Cuenta Más.
“It is a savings account that offered a 15% annual rate of return and was so revolutionary that many other competitors quickly followed suit and began to offer the same percentage. This has been so beneficial that in less than a year the volume of savings in Sofipos has doubled,” says Ayalde. The other recent launch is the Stori Black card, which offers 3% cashback on all purchases. This is a service that reimburses customers for part of their business expenses.
In the medium and long term, Stori has two goals: to reach 350,000 clients in its first year in Colombia and to serve more than 100 million Latin Americans. Ayalde is confident that the support of venture capital funds will continue to expand the company to new countries in the region. As for the Colombian market, the next goal is to become an entity supervised by the Financial Superintendence of the coffee-producing country, which would boost growth.
“We are building the foundations and all the basic things we need to carry out a good operation in Colombia that allows us to aspire to the growth we had in Mexico and serve millions of people. So that thanks to the history they are building with us, they can buy a motorcycle or a house,” Ayalde reflects.
