“Can a Bancolombia spin-out become Latin America's default consumer-and-SMB financial OS by combining a 27M-user wallet, embedded SMB acquiring, and exportable wallet infrastructure?”
Born in 2015 as an intrapreneurship inside Grupo Bancolombia, Nequi launched as a mobile-first wallet for unbanked Colombians and scaled to 27M+ users. It then matured into a regulated 'Compañía de Financiamiento' (Nequi S.A.) under Grupo Cibest, and expanded its product surface from a P2P wallet to a full SMB-and-consumer platform: card acquiring via Wompi, lending (Salvavidas, Propulsor, Crédito Negocios), embedded insurance, Payoneer cross-border inbound, and open APIs (Nequi Conecta). A parallel international play launched in El Salvador in 2025 on Inswitch's wallet-as-a-service, signaling a model where Nequi can be packaged for other LATAM banks.
Nequi discloses Bancolombia S.A. / Nequi S.A. Compañía de Financiamiento (in-house) as its banking provider, with Bancolombia S.A. as its sponsor bank, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Nequi does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Bancolombia S.A..
Nequi processes payments through Wompi (Bancolombia group), Nequi QR / Push Payment APIs (self-operated) and Nequi Negocios softPOS (self-operated).
Nequi's cards are issued through Nequi / Bancolombia (in-house, Visa network) — Inswitch in El Salvador.
Nequi uses Payoneer, PayPal, Viamericas and Inswitch (for El Salvador operations) for FX and cross-border payouts.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 6 layers in Nequi's stack: Payments / PSP (Wompi (Bancolombia group), Nequi QR / Push Payment APIs (self-operated) and Nequi Negocios softPOS (self-operated)); Banking / BaaS (Bancolombia S.A. / Nequi S.A. Compañía de Financiamiento (in-house)); Card issuing (Nequi / Bancolombia (in-house, Visa network) — Inswitch in El Salvador); Lending (Salvavidas (short-term consumer loan COP 100k–500k), Propulsor (consumer installment loan) and Crédito Negocios (SMB working capital, up to COP 10M)); Sponsor bank (Bancolombia S.A.); FX & payouts (Payoneer, PayPal, Viamericas and Inswitch (for El Salvador operations)).
Nequi was founded by Andrés Vásquez and is founded in 2016, headquartered in Medellín, Colombia.
Nequi has raised $130M (latest disclosed round) in total (latest round: Later Stage VC, $130M).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Nequi and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.