Revolut has launched full banking operations in Mexico, becoming the first market outside Europe where the company operates as a fully licensed bank. The new entity, Revolut Bank S.A. Institución de Banca Múltiple, allows Mexican customers to open accounts and use regulated banking services directly in the Revolut app.

This is a different kind of market entry for Revolut. In many countries, it operates under e-money or payments licences. In Mexico, it went through the full local banking authorisation process and built a bank from the ground up.

What This Banking Licence Really Means

Revolut received approval from Mexico’s National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV), with the backing of the central bank. That puts it in the same regulatory category as domestic banks.

It can now accept deposits, operate current accounts, and roll out a broader set of financial products over time. Customer funds are protected by Mexico’s deposit insurance scheme, which covers balances up to the local statutory limit.

The Mexican bank has been capitalised with more than USD 100 million, well above the regulatory minimum. That level of investment signals long-term intent. This is not a lightweight experiment or a market test. It is infrastructure.

For a global fintech, this matters. A banking licence changes the relationship with both regulators and customers. You are no longer “just an app.” You are part of the financial system.

What Customers Can Do Now

From day one, Mexican users can open local accounts in the app, hold and exchange multiple currencies, and send international transfers. These are familiar Revolut features, now delivered through a fully regulated local bank.

Over time, additional products such as savings and other banking services can be layered on. The key shift is not a single feature. It is the foundation. Customers are served by a bank, not a fintech wrapper around other institutions.

That distinction carries weight in markets where trust in financial providers is still uneven.

A Strategic Step in Global Growth

Mexico is a large market with a meaningful underbanked population and strong cross-border money flows. It is also a gateway to Latin America.

For Revolut, this launch acts as a blueprint. Building a regulated bank in a high-growth market shows how the company plans to expand beyond Europe in a durable way. It is slower than a payments rollout, but structurally stronger.

Revolut’s public ambition is to reach 100 million customers across 100 countries. That scale requires more than clever UX. It requires regulatory depth, capital, and patience.

Mexico is where that strategy becomes concrete.

Key takeaways for fintech startups

Before you chase global scale, it helps to understand what this kind of move really involves:

• A full banking licence changes your product scope, risk profile, and credibility.
  
  
• Regulators look for long-term commitment, not just technical readiness.
  
  
• Over-capitalising a new entity builds trust with both authorities and customers.
  
  
• Large, partially underserved markets reward infrastructure, not shortcuts.
  
  
• One well-executed expansion can become a repeatable playbook.

If you are thinking about international growth, regulation, or structural scale, we help founders design strategies that survive contact with reality. Get in touch.

Jelou, a company building transactional AI inside messaging apps, announced a $10 million Series A round to accelerate product development and international expansion. The round was led by Wellington Access Ventures, with participation from Krealo and Collide Capital.

The company’s premise is straightforward. People already communicate with businesses through chat. Instead of redirecting users to external apps or web forms to complete financial actions, Jelou enables those actions to happen directly inside a conversation on WhatsApp. Payments, identity checks, contract signatures, and credit applications remain within the same chat thread.

That shift matters in regions where messaging apps are the primary digital interface. Jelou points out that a significant share of transactions are lost when users are pushed outside the chat environment. The product is designed to reduce that friction.

A Platform Built for Real Operations

Jelou positions its Brain OS as more than a chatbot layer. The platform connects AI agents directly to enterprise infrastructure: banking cores, payment processors, identity providers, ERP systems, and internal databases.

The goal is to automate real workflows, not just answer questions. A user can apply for a financial product, complete verification, and finish the process without leaving the conversation. For regulated industries, this means conversational interfaces that still comply with operational and security requirements.

At the time of the Series A, Jelou was active in more than a dozen countries and serving over 500 corporate clients. Its customers include major banks and large consumer brands across Latin America. The company reports having processed over $100 million in financial products through these in-chat flows.

Why Investors Care

Investor interest reflects confidence in this architecture. Jelou combines conversational AI, voice interfaces, payments, and identity into a single layer that companies can adopt without rebuilding their existing systems.

For enterprises, that matters. Messaging is already where customers are. Jelou’s value proposition is not about replacing core systems, but about making them accessible through a familiar interface. The platform acts as connective tissue between complex back ends and simple conversations.

This framing positions Jelou less as a chatbot vendor and more as infrastructure for “conversational operations.”

Expansion After the Round

The new capital is allocated to scale Brain OS and expand geographically. Jelou plans to open offices in Mexico and Colombia, deepen its presence in Peru, and begin entry into Brazil and the United States.

The company was founded in Ecuador in 2017 by Luis Loaiza and Alberto Vera. It started with basic conversational tools and evolved toward secure, transaction-ready AI. The Series A reflects that transition: from experimentation with chat interfaces to building a platform capable of handling regulated financial flows at scale.

Key takeaways for fintech startups

Jelou’s trajectory shows what was in place before the $10M round:

• A product that embeds financial operations directly inside messaging apps.
  
  
• More than $100 million processed through conversational workflows.
  
  
• A customer base of over 500 companies, including large banks and brands.
  
  
• Deep integration with enterprise and financial infrastructure.

For fintech teams exploring conversational interfaces, Jelou offers a concrete example of moving beyond chat as support and into chat as execution.

If you’re thinking about how distribution, UX, and regulated workflows intersect in your product, Your Fintech Story can help you shape that strategy and avoid expensive detours.