Expand LATAM reach with Mexico's largest BNPL provider

Kueski was founded in 2012 by Adalberto Flores Ochoa, a seasoned financial services and software executive. After seeing his father struggle to obtain credit for his profitable business, Ochoa resolved to improve financial inclusion in Latin America's thriving, addressable market.

Fausto Ibarra, chief product officer at Kueski, noted that 75 percent of Kueski's customers are underserved by traditional financial institutions, and individuals with poor credit histories have few opportunities to access working capital. Kueski solves for this issue, he noted, by using alternative data to evaluate a customer's creditworthiness.

Kueski's advanced API evaluates cash flow, sociodemographic data, device data and other nontraditional sources of information, Ibarra stated. This approach leverages more data sources to assess credit risk, a proven approach that has helped increase loan approval ratings compared to traditional lending that primarily focuses at credit scores and financial histories, he added

Closing credit gaps

Ibarra went on to say that Kueski offers customers access to financial services through two flagship solutions:

• Kueski Cash: Designed to remove friction from personal loans, Kueski Cash has disbursed more than 8 million consumer loans, which have been used for monthly expenses, healthcare, education and housing.

  In 2022, approximately 60 percent of the company's microloans were oriented toward vulnerable groups, such as women (53 percent), unemployed (9 percent) and elderly (2 percent). This product's gross merchandise value increased by nearly 70 while expanding financial access to underserved consumers.

• Kueski Pay: As one of the first BNPL products in Latin America that debuted online and was later launched in physical stores in 2021, Kueski Pay is a card-free payment method that provides zero-interest, fee-free financing to consumers without credit histories or traditional financial services. The solution is available online or offline in the company's expanding network of merchants, which includes over 5,300 ecommerce sites and 2,300  retailers.

Reaching new milestones

Kueski recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary of financial service operations and has over 720 employees. Since its inception, Kueski has disbursed almost 10 million loans to 1.7 million users across Kueski Pay and Kueski Cash, totaling more than $1.4 billion in loan transactions.

The company was also the first non-traditional service provider to sponsor HOT SALE, Mexico's largest ecommerce event. Organized by the Mexican Association of Online Sales, HOT SALE promotes the digital economy by highlighting the benefits of e-commerce.

Throughout the virtual event, thousands of participating merchants offered Kueski Pay as an online checkout option, allowing unbanked consumers to participate and contributing to Kueski Pay's exponential growth. This pivotal event helped Kueski Pay scale, the company stated, propelling the solution's 1760 percent year-over-year growth between May 2021 and May 2022.

Among its numerous awards and citations, Kueski was recognized by CB Insights on its 2022 Fintech 250 list, won Best BNPL Solution at the 2022 Finovate Awards, and was included in Best Companies for Young Professionals in Mexico and Most Ethical Companies in Mexico lists.

Partner-centric focus

Kueski continues to expand its global merchant and partner networks, providing easy integrations to top-tier ecommerce sites like Shopify, VTEX, WooCommerce, PrestaShop and Magento. Developers can also embed Kueski Pay directly into their payment gateways using the company's SDK.

As Kueski continues to grow and scale its workforce, global partnerships and technology suite, the company affirmed it will continue to participate in ecommerce and omnichannel events while helping enterprises and partners integrate Kueski Pay as a payment method.

The company further noted it will continue to enhance and optimize its credit approval criteria. Through these efforts, Kueski is striving to improve financial literacy and quality of life in Mexico and Latin America while helping consumers avoid debt and build and improve credit histories.

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