Mexican Banking FinTech Klar Aims for 2026 IPO

Mexican FinTech Klar is reportedly aiming to go public at the end of 2026.

Juan Sarmiento, the company’s vice president of finance, told Bloomberg News Saturday (Nov. 2) that Klar is eyeing annual run rate of $500 million as a target for its initial public offering (IPO), projecting that it will hit that number in the third quarter of next year.

According to the report, Klar wants to see how investors feel as President Claudia Sheinbaum’s tenure gets underway.

“People want to observe the political situation to see how the new government deploys public policy and develops the economy,” Chief Executive Officer Stefan Moller told Bloomberg. “But we are confident the new administration will be able to send the necessary signs to give certainty to large-scale international investors.”

Klar focuses on middle-income professionals and college students, offering credit cards and savings accounts. The company has 2 million active users and expects to reach 10 million over the next five years, Sarmiento said.

As Bloomberg noted, just around a third of Mexican adults have formal credit, with cash still the prime payment method among 70% of adults.

Recent reporting by PYMNTS has chronicled the efforts of several companies which are attempting to capture the attention of Mexico’s unbanked/underbanked population.

For example, there’s Blu Financiero, which over the summer launched a “mass market” credit card with a 99% approval rate and which can be obtained without a formal credit history.

The company said it had 50,000 people on a waiting list at the time of launch, illustrating the need for accessible financial products in Mexico.

“We see a classic oligopoly problem where four of the top five banks control 70% of the deposits but are all foreign owned,” Casper Yonel, CEO of Blu, said in a news release. “With Mexico comprising less than 5% of their global balance sheets, these top few banks hold little incentive to develop the unique technology required to serve the growing middle class and mass market.”

More recently, the Mexican FinTech Aviva raised $5.5 million in seed funding to help develop what it calls its phygital — its term for “physical and digital” — financial solutions: kiosks that let users to apply for loans via video call, get approved in real time and receive their funds in less than 24 hours.