Aplazo bets in-store BNPL becomes Mexico's default payment; 15k merchants, Walmart

Mexican buy-now-pay-later fintech: gives shoppers a virtual card to split purchases into biweekly installments at 15,000 physical and online merchants, with credit approved in under four minutes.

That in-store BNPL, AI-underwritten with no credit history, could become Mexico's default payment and an on-ramp to broader credit for the 89% without cards.

~US$100M equity: $27M Series A (Nov 2021, Oak HC/FT), $45M Series B (May 2024, QED Investors); ~US$100M debt, incl. $35.5M BBVA Spark line (Feb 2025).

Founded in February 2020 in Mexico City by Ángel Peña (former Morgan Stanley investment banker) and Alexander Wieland (ex-Uber, ex-Lime Mexico GM). The diagnosis: only 11% of Mexicans had a credit card, yet 70% of card transactions were installment plans — the 89% without cards were locked out of a payment behavior they already preferred. The pandemic hit right after launch, making credit risk hard to model, but 90% of retail sales stayed physical.

An MVP in a shoe store led to product-market fit; revenue tripled in the year to May 2024 while delinquency rates were cut in half, which founders credit to AI underwriting each transaction. A $45M Series B led by QED Investors (May 2024) valued the near-cash-flow-breakeven company as it passed ~10,000 merchants; a $35.5M BBVA Spark line followed in Feb 2025 and a Conekta partnership in Sept 2025. In early Nov 2025 Aplazo closed an online exclusivity with Walmart (launching with 1.5M pre-approved credits) and signed Aeroméxico, bus lines and supermarkets; merchants saw +60% average tickets and +30% conversion.

Still running and scaling: present in all 32 Mexican states with ~15,000 merchants, 300,000+ monthly app downloads, US$223M annual online volume (15% share), and a stated target of profitability in 2026.

The data was decisive: 11% card penetration against an ingrained installment culture meant the 89% without cards were an untouched credit market.

In-store-first matched the reality that 90%+ of Mexican retail sales were physical, avoiding a head-on fight with e-commerce BNPL incumbents.

Owning underwriting with AI let Aplazo halve delinquency while tripling volume, making the credit risk bankable.

Winning Walmart and Aeroméxico turned a small-merchant story into national infrastructure, validating BNPL as a default payment method.

Bet on a payment habit that already exists: Mexicans already paid in installments; Aplazo digitized it for the 89% without cards. In-store-first beat e-commerce-first where most retail is physical.

As of September 2026 Aplazo is live and scaling across Mexico with ~15,000 merchants, 300,000+ monthly app downloads and a US$223M annual online payment volume, after closing an online exclusivity with Walmart in November 2025 and partnerships with Conekta, EBANX and Aeroméxico. The company raised roughly US$100M in equity and US$100M in debt since 2020 and stated profitability in 2026 as its immediate goal; it has not raised a Series C as of the asOf date.