// STARTUP COMPARISON
Culqi vs Aplazame
Culqi failed in 2022 due to Acquisition Gone Wrong. Aplazame failed in 2022 due to Acquisition Gone Wrong. Both failed for the same reason — Acquisition Gone Wrong.
| METRIC | 🔥 Culqi | 🔥 Aplazame |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Fintech | Fintech |
| Country | Peru | Spain |
| Founded | 2013 | 2013 |
| Died | 2022 | 2022 |
| Raised | $15M | €15M |
| Peak | $80M valuation (2021) | Acquired by WiZink 2017 |
| Primary Cause | Acquisition Gone Wrong | Acquisition Gone Wrong |
// WHY EACH FAILED
🔥 Culqi
Acquisition Gone Wrong
Culqi was Peru's leading payment gateway — the "Stripe of Peru" — processing online card payments for 30,000+ merchants. BBVA acquired Culqi in 2017 for an undisclosed sum to accelerate its digital payments strategy. Under BBVA ownership, Culqi's developer-first culture was replaced by banking bureaucracy: API updates went from weekly to quarterly, pricing became opaque, and merchant onboarding went from 2 hours to 3 weeks. By 2022, Izipay (backed by Visa) and Niubiz had captured 80% of the market that Culqi had pioneered. BBVA quietly discontinued Culqi as a separate brand in 2022.
// LESSON
When a bank acquires a developer-first payments product, the product does not transform the bank — the bank transforms the product. API cadence is a culture metric. When it drops from weekly to quarterly, the developers leave, then the merchants leave.
When a bank acquires a developer-first payments product, the product does not transform the bank — the bank transforms the product. API cadence is a culture metric. When it drops from weekly to quarterly, the developers leave, then the merchants leave.
🔥 Aplazame
Acquisition Gone Wrong
Aplazame was Spain's early BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) leader, acquired by WiZink Bank in 2017 for an undisclosed sum. Post-acquisition, Aplazame was integrated into WiZink's consumer finance products and its brand gradually disappeared. By 2022, Aplazame as an independent product no longer existed — absorbed into WiZink's broader offering while global BNPL leaders like Klarna and Afterpay dominated the space the company had pioneered.
// LESSON
Being acquired by a traditional bank as a fintech is not an exit — it is a slow disappearance. Banks acquire to neutralize competition, not to scale the product. Aplazame pioneered BNPL in Spain and ended up as a footnote in WiZink's product catalog.
Being acquired by a traditional bank as a fintech is not an exit — it is a slow disappearance. Banks acquire to neutralize competition, not to scale the product. Aplazame pioneered BNPL in Spain and ended up as a footnote in WiZink's product catalog.
// EXPLORE FURTHER