Rappi Underwrites With Multi-Vertical Data
Sebastian Mejia, co-founder of Rappi, on building for multi-verticality in on-demand
Rappi’s edge in credit is that it sees the customer as a stream of repeated real world actions, not a thin bank file. A bank may see salary deposits, bureau history, and card repayment. Rappi can also see how often someone orders, what categories they buy from, whether usage expands over time, and whether they keep spending inside the same app. That gives partner banks a richer signal set for deciding who is likely to repay, especially in markets where many consumers have limited formal credit history.
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The multi vertical model matters because Rappi is not just a food app. It combines food, grocery, pharmacy, e-commerce, travel, payments, and cards in one product. That means more chances to observe steady behavior, which makes risk models stronger than models built from one product line or infrequent bank interactions.
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This is the same playbook used by other digital finance leaders in Latin America. Nubank and Mercado Pago grew by underwriting consumers from app level behavior and transaction history, not only bureau files. Rappi’s version is distinctive because commerce, logistics, and payments all live in one app, so spending data and engagement data sit together.
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The economic payoff is bigger than loan revenue alone. Rappi said cards increase app frequency, improve retention through cash back and loyalty rewards, and lower payment processing costs when customers use the card inside Rappi. That turns credit from a standalone fintech product into a tool that improves the whole marketplace’s unit economics.
The direction of travel is toward tighter coupling between commerce data and financial products. As Rappi keeps more consumer spending, payments, and wallet activity inside its ecosystem, its banking partners can price credit faster and to more customers, and the company can make fintech a larger profit layer on top of delivery and marketplace volume.