PayJoy buys Mexico's Finia to sharpen credit scoring in underserved markets

What's the deal? PayJoy has acquired FiniaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Mexican venture-backed fintech, for an undisclosed sum, the company said Monday (October 12). The acquisition brings Finia's AI underwriting technology to PayJoy's platform, which serves more than 20 million customers across Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

What's the endgame? PayJoy offers products like digitally secured smartphone financing, credit lines, and the PayJoy Card. Finia built tools to assess creditworthiness for micro-businesses and owners with little or no formal credit history, extending those to installment loans and credit cards.

Why it matters: The deal targets a core problem in financial inclusion — judging who deserves credit when traditional data is thin. "Finia has developed valuable technology and deep insights that can help address one of the fundamental challenges in financial inclusion," said Jose Luis Gonzalez, head of growth for PayJoy Mexico.

By the numbers: Thin credit files hit the smallest firms hardest. PYMNTS IntelligenceDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → research found microbusiness credit applications had a 77% approval rate, versus 95% for large enterprises, with roughly 19% rejected for insufficient data.

Among 350 financial institution executives in the US and UK, 57% pointed to inaccurate or incomplete business records as an underwriting obstacle, while 48% cited limited financial history.

The signal: By folding Finia into a platform that already reaches global markets, PayJoy is betting that better data — not just more capital — unlocks lending for the businesses banks overlook. With microbusinesses reporting lower confidence in surviving the next two years, sharper scoring could decide who gets funded.

Read more: pymnts.com

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