Fintual, the Chilean digital investment platform, confirmed it will open its own pension fund administrator (AFP), according to Ex-Ante. Omar Larré, a partner in the company and leader of the project, made the announcement during a presentation to clients reported by Diario Financiero.
"Yes, the rumor in the press is true. We are going to open a Fintual AFP," Larré said. According to DF, the company has already begun procedures with the Superintendency of Pensions, the body that oversees AFPs, to obtain a provisional certificate of existence. It is also developing its own software to begin operating in January.
The model would be mostly digital. Larré explained that regulations allow it to operate with a single branch, without a network of offices across the country. Think of a bank that exists only on your phone, with a physical office to comply with the law.
On the bidding process for members, the mechanism that assigns new contributors to the AFP with the lowest fee, Larré said the decision remains under consideration. For now, the firm believes its existing customer base could be enough to get started.
The announcement comes as AFPs face criticism over the poor performance of Fund E, the most conservative of the multifunds and the one usually recommended to people nearing retirement. The source does not provide figures for that decline or detail what would change for members of that fund.
Larré acknowledged the image problem. "The AFP brand is not a good brand," he said, adding that the acronym "is loaded and now, with this episode, it is even more loaded." His aim, he said, is to leave behind "some practices of the past" and introduce modern asset management practices for the benefit of members.
Fintual was founded in 2016. Omar Larré, Pedro Pineda, Agustín Feuerhake and Andrés Marinkovic founded it with the idea that anyone could invest from $1,000, simply, transparently and cheaply.
The original idea came from Larré, who worked as a portfolio manager (investment portfolio manager) at Itaú. He noticed that many people wanted to invest but could not find simple or inexpensive options. He brought in Marinkovic and Pineda, whom he knew from university. Feuerhake had already started QuéHambre, a delivery app acquired by PedidosYa.
Getting started was difficult. Marinkovic said they held around 70 meetings with asset managers and brokerage firms before finding a partner for their first product. Pineda visited the first 40 clients in person to have them sign their contracts.
In 2018, it became the first Chilean startup selected by Y Combinator, the US accelerator that helped Airbnb, Dropbox and Stripe grow. More than 10 thousand startups apply each year, and only between 1% and 2% get in. On their first attempt, the founders arrived dressed as Santa Claus in a Tesla and were rejected. On their second attempt, they got in.
That experience gave it international visibility and helped it expand into Mexico. In 2021, it raised US$15 million in a Series A led by Kaszek Ventures and US$39 million in a Series B led by Sequoia Capital, that fund's first investment in a Chilean company.
Its relationship with pensions is not new. In 2018, it launched a Voluntary Pension Savings (APV) product, additional retirement savings that supplement mandatory contributions. Its funds have names such as Conservative Clooney, Moderate Pitt and Risky Norris.
According to a letter from CEO Pedro Pineda, the Chilean operation broke even in 2024 and exceeded US$10 million in annual revenue. At the end of that year, Fintual managed more than US$1,200 million in assets. The next milestone is obtaining authorization from the Superintendency to start in January.