The archive · Money & Fintech · Product decision · 2012–2026
Kueski's no-card BNPL bet: 3M Amazon Mexico payments by Aug 2025, 250k new users/month
Mexican lender Kueski put biweekly BNPL into Amazon's checkout without a credit card: 1M payments by Dec 2024, 3M by Aug 2025, 250,000 new users monthly.
Kueski
What the business is
Kueski is a Mexican consumer lender founded in Guadalajara: data-driven personal loans plus Kueski Pay, a biweekly-installment BNPL product offered without a credit card, embedded in merchants such as Amazon Mexico.
Starting capital：US$202 million Series C in December 2021, led by StepStone Group and Victory Park Capital.
How it started
Adalberto Flores Ochoa founded Kueski in Guadalajara in 2012. The company spent its first decade making fully digital personal loans in a market where most transactions are cash and a majority of consumers have no credit card; by January 2024 it reported about 15 million loans approved and 620 employees, and it had launched its BNPL product Kueski Pay around three years earlier. A US$202 million Series C in December 2021 was led by StepStone Group and Victory Park Capital.
What happened
In February 2024 Amazon Mexico became the first Amazon marketplace in Latin America to offer a BNPL option, switching on Kueski Pay for purchases split into two to twelve biweekly payments with no card required. Volume reached 1 million Amazon BNPL transactions by December 2024 and 3 million by August 2025, an eight-month tripling, with an average ticket around 2,500 pesos and four-fortnight terms the most chosen. Kueski says it adds about 250,000 new users a month, that about a fifth of loan customers opened their first bank account to receive a loan, and that it has granted more than 30 million loans since 2012; Mexico's Economy Ministry gave Kueski a 'Hecho en México' seal in June 2025.
How it ended up
Still private and Mexico-focused; executives argue BNPL will grow from 1–2% of Mexican e-commerce toward 15% as global players enter, with Kueski's local fraud models and no-card model as the defense.
Background
Kueski, founded by Adalberto Flores Ochoa in Guadalajara in 2012, is a consumer lender for Mexicans who do not qualify for traditional credit: personal loans underwritten with data rather than card history, and Kueski Pay, a BNPL product that splits purchases into biweekly installments without asking for a credit card. By January 2024 it reported almost 15 million loans approved and 620 employees.
The distribution bet landed in February 2024, when Amazon Mexico made Kueski Pay its first BNPL option in Latin America: shoppers can split purchases into two to twelve fortnightly payments, except on gift cards, e-books, Kindle and Prime Video or Audible products. Volume hit 1 million Amazon BNPL transactions by December 2024 and tripled to 3 million by August 2025, with an average ticket of about 2,500 pesos; the company says it adds around 250,000 new users a month.
Kueski says one in five loan customers opened their first bank account to receive a loan, which it frames as banking inclusion rather than just credit. Its executives argue BNPL holds only 1–2% of Mexican e-commerce and can reach about 15%, and that Kueski's local fraud models and no-card model give it an edge as global players arrive. The company reports more than 30 million loans granted since 2012.
What has to be true
- Most Mexicans lack credit cards, so online checkout was closed to them; Kueski Pay opened it without changing how they pay.
- Amazon supplied the distribution — Kueski's own app would have taken years to match that traffic.
- Data accumulated since 2012 let Kueski underwrite thin-file borrowers that card issuers reject.
- The eight-month tripling from 1 million to 3 million Amazon BNPL payments is concrete evidence the product works at the point of sale.
What can be applied
Lend where the shopper already is: a decade of proprietary credit data paid off only when Kueski sat inside Amazon's checkout, turning the merchant's traffic into its own loan volume.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-06 Kueski remains a private, Mexico-focused lender. Its Amazon BNPL channel grew from 1 million transactions in December 2024 to 3 million by August 2025, monthly new-user additions are around 250,000, and total loans granted since 2012 exceed 30 million; a 2025 survey of 2,000 personal-loan customers found 25% used credit for emergencies and 22% to organize their finances. The company has not announced an IPO, and funding beyond the December 2021 Series C has not been disclosed in the cited articles.
Sources
- Kueski triplica transacciones en Amazon y llega a 3 millones de pagos BNPL
- Amazon Mexico to offer buy now, pay later option
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