Conekta Review

Conekta is a Mexico City online payment company for businesses that sell in Mexico. It takes cards, meses sin intereses (interest-free instalments), SPEI bank transfers, cash payments at stores and BBVA cash machines, Apple Pay, Google Pay, pay-by-bank through BBVA and buy now, pay later. As of October 2026 its published rate for small and mid-size businesses is 3.4% + MX$3 per card sale, MX$12.50 per SPEI transfer and 2.6% + MX$3 per cash payment, all plus 16% IVA. There is no monthly fee and no fixed contract term. Either side can end the agreement on 30 days' written notice. Card sales are deposited two business days later. Conekta signs merchants as a payment aggregator under acquiring banks, but in September 2026 it announced CNBV authorisation to act as a direct non-bank acquirer. In 2024 it sold the cash business behind OXXO Pay to FEMSA, and its current cash network and terms no longer list OXXO. Public review data is thin, and the terms let Conekta hold funds for up to 540 days.

Estimated annual cost at three realistic processing volumes, using Conekta’s published online rate plus monthly fees. Real costs vary with average transaction size, chargeback rate, and any negotiated terms.

What Conekta is

Conekta is a Mexican online payment company that lets businesses accept the ways Mexicans actually pay online through a single integration: cards, meses sin intereses, SPEI transfers, cash at stores and BBVA machines, BBVA pay-by-bank, Apple Pay, Google Pay and buy now, pay later. The contracting company is Grupo Conektame, S.A. de C.V., at Blvd. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 161 in Mexico City's Miguel Hidalgo borough. The company says three University of Waterloo engineers, Héctor Cárdenas, Leo Fischer and Cristina Randall, saw the opportunity in 2011. Conekta's own September 2026 announcement says it was born in 2011, while its terms give the incorporation deed as 8 October 2012, and a LAVCA profile of the company says it processed its first payment in February 2013. Cárdenas is CEO. As of September 2026 Conekta says it has processed more than US$15 billion across 428 million transactions for more than 8,000 businesses, and its about page lists a team of more than 120.

Why we list Conekta as a payment facilitator

Conekta's terms say merchants contract its card service in its capacity as a payment aggregator (agregador de pagos), and they name the acquiring banks behind it: Banorte, BBVA, Afirme, Banregio and American Express. The merchant signs one agreement with Conekta, is approved under Conekta's affiliations, pays Conekta's published price and is paid out by Conekta, which can hold funds. That is the facilitator model. On 21 September 2026 Conekta announced that the CNBV had authorised it to act as a direct non-bank acquirer, which lets it connect to the card networks itself. Its terms, however, still describe the aggregator model, and the company has not said which networks it now reaches directly. We will revisit the classification once merchant contracts change.

What it costs

• Cards (Visa, Mastercard, Carnet, American Express), Mexico: 3.4% + MX$3 per sale, plus IVA, as of October 2026. With 16% IVA that is about 3.94% + MX$3.48.
• Food vouchers (vales de despensa): 4.4% + MX$3 + IVA.
• Meses sin intereses: an issuer surcharge on top of the base card fee, plus IVA: American Express 3.9% (3 months), 6.9% (6), 8.9% (9), 10.9% (12), 14.9% (18); BBVA 4.9%, 8.4%, 11.2%, 14.1% and 26.5% (24 months); Citibanamex 5.4%, 7.8%, 8.75%, 11.0% and 13.5% (18 months); other banks 3.5%, 6.5%, 9.5% and 12.0% (12 months).
• SPEI bank transfer: MX$12.50 + IVA.
• Conekta Efectivo cash: 2.6% + MX$3 + IVA, minimum MX$5.40 + IVA; financial services and insurers MX$16 + IVA flat. The paying customer also pays the store MX$10 to MX$13, but nothing at BBVA Practicaja.
• 3D Secure: MX$1.50 + IVA per authenticated transaction, in both smart and all-transaction modes.
• Buy now, pay later: 4% or 6% + IVA, with no explanation on the page of which applies. Pago Directo BBVA: from MX$13, quoted by volume.
• No monthly fee, and no fee to integrate. Enterprise plans with volume pricing are quoted by sales.

These are list prices for Mexico, and the page says all plans and rates are plus IVA. Conekta publishes no separate rate for foreign cards. As an illustration, a store selling MX$200,000 a month in 400 card sales of MX$500 would pay MX$6,800 plus MX$1,200 in fixed fees, or MX$8,000. With IVA that is MX$9,280, about 4.6% of sales. The MX$3 fixed fee weighs heavily on small tickets. The same MX$200,000 taken as 200 SPEI transfers would cost MX$2,900 with IVA. Meses sin intereses are where costs climb: a 12-month plan on a BBVA card adds 14.1% before IVA to the base fee, which the merchant pays, not the customer.

Cash payments after the OXXO Pay sale

For years Conekta was the company behind OXXO Pay, and a 2016 report on its Series A described cash payments at about 14,500 OXXO stores as a core part of its offering. In April 2024 Digital@FEMSA, the digital arm of OXXO's owner FEMSA, agreed to buy from Conekta the assets that enable OXXO Pay. FEMSA's 2024 annual report on Form 20-F says it acquired Conekta's cash business, which supports OXXO Pay, in September 2024. The FEMSA announcement said merchants using OXXO Pay through Conekta would be served by Digital@FEMSA, and that Conekta would continue with cards and bank transfers. Conekta has since rebuilt a cash product, Conekta Efectivo, on other networks. It now lists more than 5,600 BBVA Practicaja machines and a store network of more than 19,000 points, including 7-Eleven, Circle K, Extra, Farmacias del Ahorro, Farmacias Benavides and smaller chains. Payments run from MX$10 to MX$35,000, with chain caps as low as MX$5,000. The store table in its terms does not include OXXO. Its pricing calculator still offers OXXO as a chain, which appears to be a leftover; a merchant who needs OXXO should get written confirmation either way.

How it works

Sign-up is self-serve: you create an account, test in a sandbox, then integrate through the API, a hosted checkout, embeddable Components, a plugin or a payment link. Conekta has plugins for WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, Tiendanube, Prestashop and VTEX, and the WooCommerce plugin shows more than 2,000 active installs. Its anti-fraud engine, Fortress, scores every card payment. 3D Secure 2 can be applied to suspect or all transactions, and Smart Retry re-tries declined cards through up to five acquiring affiliations in up to 30 seconds. Conekta says it is a PCI DSS Level 1 service provider, so merchants using its checkout do not store card data. For in-person sales it offers QR codes rather than card terminals. Debit cards must be Mexican, and foreign credit cards are accepted with lower approval rates.

Payouts, reserves and contract terms

Under the terms, card sales are deposited two business days after the sale, American Express four, food vouchers three, SPEI two, BBVA pay-by-bank one and buy now, pay later two, though the homepage says buy now, pay later is paid the next business day. Store cash is deposited the Wednesday after the week of payment, and BBVA Practicaja cash the next business day. The first deposit to a new bank account adds two business days, and only one bank account, in the business's own name, can receive deposits. There is no fixed term: either side can end the agreement on 30 days' written notice. The card and Google Pay terms let Conekta retain balances for up to 540 calendar days after a transaction for suspected illicit activity, fraud or other risk, or to prevent future chargebacks. That matches the window in which the terms say chargebacks on foreign cards can arrive; for Mexican cards it is 180 days. A negative balance also lets Conekta keep all new payouts until the debt is paid. It can change fees on 30 days' notice and raise fixed fees each January from the second year in line with INPC inflation; either change lets you leave without penalty. Other changes to the terms are treated as accepted unless you object within 10 days. Conekta can close an account after 12 months of inactivity. Card merchants it treats as high risk must give a month's notice before their Visa or Mastercard registration renews, and 30 days' notice before they stop processing, or owe up to US$1,500 plus IVA in each case. Disputes go to mediation, then to the Mexico City courts.

Regulation and ownership

Conekta's terms say it has accreditations from the CNBV and Banco de México for its services, without naming them. Its card service is described as aggregation through licensed acquiring banks. The clearest regulatory fact is recent: on 21 September 2026 Conekta announced CNBV authorisation as a direct non-bank acquirer, after two years of rebuilding its platform since 2024. Press reports relay the announcement, and Alto Nivel notes that Conekta has not said which networks are live under the new model. We could not check the authorisation in the CNBV's own register. Banco de México counted 15 non-bank acquirers in Mexico at the end of 2025. We found no record of it holding a payment-fund institution (IFPE) licence, and it does not describe itself as one. Conekta is venture-backed. A US$2 million seed round came from Variv Capital, Jaguar Ventures, 500 Startups and others. A US$6.6 million Series A in 2016 came from Variv, Jaguar, FEMSA Comercio and a fourth fund, and a US$13 million round in 2019 was led by Propel Ventures with Variv and FEMSA Comercio. Conekta itself cites US$24 million raised in Series A and B. The announced Series A and 2019 round add up to US$19.6 million, or US$21.6 million with the seed, so the sources do not reconcile. None of these investors has published a controlling stake, so we treat them as investors, not owners.

Reputation

There is little independent review data for Conekta. We found no Trustpilot profile for its domains. Its Shopify app, as of October 2026, has 1 star from 7 reviews, most from 2022, citing heavy card fraud that was not caught, a redirect checkout that cost sales and, in a 2025 review, an update that would not connect and no help from support. The WooCommerce plugin on WordPress.org has 3.5 stars from 6 ratings. We found no lawsuit, regulatory sanction or data breach naming Conekta.

Who Conekta suits

Conekta suits a Mexican online business, from a small store to a large merchant, that wants cards, meses sin intereses, SPEI, cash and buy now, pay later in one contract at published rates, with no monthly fee or lock-in. It is a strong fit where cash and bank transfers matter, as long as BBVA Practicaja, 7-Eleven and pharmacies are enough and OXXO is not essential. Price meses sin intereses carefully, because the surcharge is yours to pay. Businesses selling mostly to foreign cardholders, or needing counter terminals, should look elsewhere. Before signing, ask for written confirmation of the cash network, any reserve applied to your account, and whether the new direct-acquirer status changes your rates or payout times.