The Mexico-based fintech that decided to buy a bank

In the six years since launching Credijusto, David Poritz and Allan Apoj delivered more than 250 per cent annual revenue growth and managed to turn Covid-19 into an opportunity. But when the co-chief executives decided to go mainstream by buying a bank, even one of their biggest backers baulked. Hernán Kazah, co-founder of Latin America’s biggest venture capital firm, Kaszek, feared the purchase of Banco Finterra could cause the duo to lose focus. Or as he puts it: “When David and Allan said they were buying a bank, I thought they were mad.” Poritz, a 32-year-old US anthropologist-turned-entrepreneur with a masters in public policy from the University of Oxford, smiles at the irony: “Fintechs were created to disrupt the banking sector,” he says. And yet, in June, Credijusto spent an undisclosed sum under $50m to become a bank itself.

www.ft.com/...