Jefa

01 / WHAT IT BUILT

What the company did

Jefa was a Mexico City-based challenger bank founded in 2020 by Emma Smith, designed specifically for women in Latin America. It offered a free, branchless digital account — sign up in minutes with a government ID, no minimum balance — with a Visa debit card, built-in savings features and a rewards program. Built on the insight that nearly 1.3 billion of the world's 1.4 billion unbanked people are women and that minimum-balance requirements disproportionately hurt women, Jefa raised $2 million in seed funding in November 2021, had 115,000 women on its waitlist, and signed a seven-year strategic partnership with Visa. It planned to launch in Mexico first, then Colombia and Central America. No failure event has been reported.

03 / EVENT HISTORY

Events in the structured record

1. 2020
   Founding

   Jefa is founded by Emma Smith as a digital bank for women in Latin America, participating in TechCrunch Disrupt's Startup Battlefield in September 2020.

2. 2021
   $2M seed round

   Jefa raises $2 million in seed funding from The Venture Collective, Foundation Capital, DST Global partners and others, with 115,000 women on its waitlist and a seven-year Visa partnership.