Stori

Stori is a Mexico City-based consumer fintech that provides digital financial products to middle- and lower-income Mexicans who are underserved by traditional banks. Its core product is a no-annual-fee credit card, marketed as available regardless of the applicant's existing credit history, which the company says had a 99% approval rate as of 2024. The product line has since broadened to include Stori Black, a premium card offering 1% cashback on all purchases and the option to defer purchases over 12 months; Stori Cuenta+, a deposit account with no commissions or minimum opening balance; personal loans; bill payment and mobile top-ups; and a feature that turns a phone into a card-acceptance terminal for merchants.

All products are delivered through a mobile-first app, from application to servicing and payments, and are offered by Stori México, S.A. de C.V., Sociedad Financiera Popular, a regulated Sofipo entity. Company marketing cites credit cards with up to 10% cashback in selected categories, credit lines up to MXN $220,000, deposit yields advertised at up to a 15.00% annual nominal GAT (8.20% in an earlier English-language version of the site), and loans of up to $3,000. Building users' formal credit bureau history is presented as a central benefit of the card.

The company's stated mission is to democratize access to quality financial services for the underserved mass-market population in Mexico and, longer term, across Latin America, a market it describes as comprising more than 400 million underserved consumers.

Founding story

Stori was founded by a team whose members had worked at Capital One on underwriting underserved populations, as well as at Mastercard, Morgan Stanley, GE Money, HSBC and Intel in Mexico and the U.S. Co-founder and CEO Bin Chen has said all co-founders came from modest backgrounds and had personally experienced exclusion from formal financial services — recounting repeated rejections before obtaining his first credit card as an international student in Illinois. Co-founder Marlene Garayzar, Chief Governance Officer (later described as CGO), became the first Mexican woman to co-found a unicorn technology startup in the country. TechCrunch identifies the founding team as Juan Villaseñor, Marlene Garayzar, Bin Chen and Camila Burne; a 2022 press photo lists co-founders GY Liu, Bin Chen, Marlene Garayzar, Nick Chen and Sherman He.

Business model

Stori operates as a regulated Mexican financial institution (Stori México, S.A. de C.V., Sociedad Financiera Popular) issuing credit cards, taking deposits and lending directly to consumers through its own mobile app. Revenue is generated from consumer credit products, with growth of the credit card portfolio funded through successive debt facilities from institutions including Community Investment Management, Davidson Kempner Capital Management and Goldman Sachs, alongside venture equity.

Consumer lending and card economics: interest and financing on revolving credit card balances and personal loans, deferred-payment and installment products, and deposit-funded balance sheet activity. Marketed products carry no annual fee and no account commissions, with cashback of up to 10% in selected categories on the standard card and 1% on Stori Black.

Traction

Customer growth progressed from more than 1 million card applications by February 2021, to more than 2 million applications by November 2021, more than 1.4 million customers in July 2022, 3 million users in August 2024, and more than 5 million users cited on the company's current website. In January 2021 monthly new customer growth was reported at 14 times the January 2020 level. Headcount grew from 40 to 80 employees between early 2020 and early 2021.

Latest developments

In August 2024 Stori announced $212 million in equity and debt financing and appointed Diego Cabrera Canay as CFO. The company subsequently launched a co-branded credit card with Farmacias Similares targeting Mexico's unbanked population. Current company materials advertise more than 5 million Mexican users, expanded products including personal loans, service payments and phone-based card acceptance for merchants, and deposit yields of up to a 15.00% annual nominal GAT.