Stori raises a mega-wave of investment, but its delinquency rate increases

The digital financial services company, Story, announced the closing of its investment round Series C for 125 million dollars and thus to realize one of the largest capital raises in Latin America.

According to the firm, this investment round was co-directed by the global investment fund GGV Capital and by the investment fund for the GIC growth phase. Likewise, he indicated that the resources will serve to grow its loan portfolio in the country, a product that began operating at the beginning of 2020.

“More than 2 million Mexicans have applied for a Stori credit card, and that number has grown more than 10 times in the last twelve months. Over the next year, Story It is committed to investing the 200 million dollars raised in Mexico to triple its size and expand its set of products in order to meet the needs of customers, “the firm said in a statement.

For its founders, Marlene garayzar and Bin Chen, Latin America is among the greatest technological financial opportunities in the world, as there are more than 400 million underserved consumers with financial services.

Our success since launch is the direct result of having a team that is passionate about our mission to empower the upward financial mobility of underserved populations. We are incredibly grateful for their hard work and dedication, “Garayzar commented.

Delinquency rises

According to data from the platform Tukan, which collects information from the Condusef, Stori had a loan portfolio of 505 million 523,446 pesos at the end of the first quarter of 2021, which has been constant since its inception in Mexico, mainly with its credit card product.

Along with this growth, also its past due portfolio, and therefore its delinquency rate (IMOR), have risen. According to Tukan, the IMOR of this company went from 4% to 9% in the second quarter to the third quarter of 2021.

During the first quarter of the year, the firm announced the closing of its Series B round for which it raised $ 32.5 million, which was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and had the participation of Vision Plus Capita, BAI Capital and Source Code Capital, among others.

According to the firm, since its Series B, the company is already one of the main issuers of new credit cards in Mexico, in a market where there are more than 27 million current plastics in the country.

Stori’s loan portfolio grows little by little to compete with the banks. According to Tukan’s data, the balance of its portfolio as of September 2021, was proportional to 37.3% of the loan portfolio of Bank of the Bajío, 9% of the of Azteca Bank and 4.9% of Invex Bank.