Jefa
“Can a women-focused challenger bank capture the underbanked female majority of Latin America's unbanked population?”
Founded2020
HQUnited States (LatAm-focused)
FoundersEmma Sánchez Andrade Smith
Total raised$2M
Latest roundSeed, 2021
IndustryFintech / Neobank
The story
Jefa was founded in 2020 by Emma Sánchez Andrade Smith as a digital challenger bank aimed specifically at women in Latin America and the Caribbean — a demographic that makes up the majority of the world's unbanked. The company positioned itself against LatAm neobanks like Nubank and Ualá by narrowing its ICP to women-specific pain points around opening and managing accounts. A 2021 seed round and multi-year Visa partnership provided the payments rails to launch debit and credit card products.
Last 12 months
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Product timeline
2020
Founded; participated in TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield as a challenger bank for women in Latin America· pivot
2021
Raised $2M seed round and signed multi-year strategic partnership agreement with Visa to power payment products· card
The stack
2 layers disclosed in Jefa’s embedded-finance stack
Card network
Lending
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
1 more provider across 1 layer, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.