Mexican Digital Payment Platform Clip Raises $250 Million

Payments FinTech Clip, based in Mexico, has received $250 million from the SoftBank Latin America Fund as well as Viking Global Investors, according to a press release.

That has given the company a valuation of $2 billion, the release stated.

Founder and CEO Adolfo Babatz said in the release that the company plans to “grow aggressively,” attempting to “have Clip in every business in Mexico.”

Clip was founded in 2012 and offers three payment devices, including a $7 credit card reader that can be put on smartphones, Bloomberg reported.

Babatz told Bloomberg that the service has been successful, with tourist guides, corner stores, street vendors and others putting it to use as a cheap way to accept cards. This has been a help as because previously, around 85 percent of the companies using the service now only accepted cash before.

Mexicans have around 1.5 cards per person and only use them for around 40 transactions per year, due to the lack of places that accept the cards, according to Bloomberg. There are around 11 million businesses in Mexico and only about 1 million of them accept cards.

Clip sells its products online but also has around 15,000 points of sale in the country and is able to deliver its products, Bloomberg reported.

In addition, the company is starting to offer cash advances to clients, to be repaid over three to four months, according to Bloomberg. They come with interest rates of about 10 percent to 15 percent. And there’s an online catalog for vendors to sell products on the web and get paid through that same channel.

Mexico’s economy is mostly cash-based, but it is planning to digitize, a move spurred by the pandemic.

Miguel Diaz, general director of Payment Systems and Market Infrastructures at the Central Bank of Mexico (Banxico) told PYMNTS that the goal would be to expand financial inclusion via free digital transactions, allowing for every Mexican to participate regardless of financial background.