Aplazo is a four-year-old Mexican fintech that offers buy now, pay later and a virtual card to enable fractionated payments for both offline and online merchants, including consumers without credit cards. More than half of its transactions occur in physical stores, reflecting Mexico’s still-limited e-commerce penetration and an underbanked population (40% of users lack credit histories). The company embeds AI in underwriting to limit credit loss, cutting delinquency rates by half while more than tripling its business and tripling revenue in the past year. Aplazo says it is near cash-flow breakeven in the last couple of months and maintains a headcount of about 130 employees. Management frames BNPL as a stepping stone toward broader fintech ambitions to become a preferred payment method and deepen relationships with merchants and consumers. Aplazo integrates with merchants' online and offline payment processes to let customers pay in five equal installments without a credit card. The company takes on installment and chargeback risk while charging merchants a fee and preserving merchant–customer relationships. Aplazo emphasizes its offline capability (95% of purchases in Mexico are offline) and uses alternative data—open banking and telecom—to underwrite consumers with limited credit histories. Since its seed round, Aplazo has grown total processing volume more than eightfold and partnered with over 1,000 merchants in categories like fashion, footwear and beauty, which it estimates represent about $70 billion in spending. The team is approximately 50 people and plans to double headcount by February while launching in two additional countries in 2022. New funding will be used for technology and product development and investing in merchant success.

Total raised

$72M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

May 2024