Plata, founded by Tinkoff employees, has raised a $300 million loan from investment giants

Mexico's Banco Plata, created by Tinkoff Bank, has raised $300 million from leading multinational investment firms Oaktree Capital Management and Macquarie Group. For one of the fastest growing neobanks in Mexico, this is a step towards strengthening its funding base: Plata has already launched deposits and is reducing its dependence on short-term capital.

The Oaktree and Macquarie funds are part of a $500 million syndicated credit facility. Fasanara Capital and Mexican fintech firm Banco Covalto also participated in the financing, Bloomberg reports, citing a Plata statement.

Plata CFO Marcos Cantt called Oaktree, Macquarie and other investors along the line "some of the most advanced institutional lenders in the world." Their willingness to fund Plata confirms that the bank is building a "sustainable, cost-effective and less reliant on short-term capital" funding structure, he said.

Bloomberg calls Plata "Mexico's fastest-growing neobank among companies that compete with traditional banks in one of the largest markets with low banking penetration." In March 2026, Plata launched banking operations in Mexico and added deposits to its loan products. In its first month as a bank, the startup attracted about 3.7 billion pesos ($213 million) in deposits - more than Santander's Revolut and Openbank, Jefferies calculated.

Plata's loan book growth slowed in the first quarter of 2026, but still remained higher than banks and fintech competitors, pointed out Gilberto Garcia of Miranda Partners. In Morgan Stanley after a meeting of Plata management with institutional investors noted that the Mexican bank founded by Tinkoff's descendants is going through a turning point: replacing wholesale funding with deposits and expanding the product line beyond lending, Bloomberg points out.

Plata was launched in 2023 by former Tinkoff top managers Neri Tollardo, Alexander Bro and Danil Anisimov. Tinkoff founder Oleg Tinkov and Michael Calvey from Baring Vostok also invested in the company at the startup. They are not involved in operational management, but participate in strategy development and help build relationships with regulators and investors, the entrepreneurs said in an interview with The Bell in June 2025.

The initial investment in Plata amounted to about $300 million. A year after its launch, the startup was already worth $1.5 billion, and at an investor round in April 2026 it reached a valuation of $5 billion, becoming the most expensive non-public digital bank in Latin America. A year ago, Tinkov said Plata could launch an IPO within two years with a $10 billion valuation.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor