DM, a Vinci Capital investment, is starting to go beyond credit cards.

When DM closed the purchase of Credz two years ago, the company became the largest independent operator in the country's private label credit card market, with more than 17 million cards issued. But the company had already drawn up a plan to go beyond hegemony in the "plastic" market.

While consolidating the credit card market—also incorporating FortBrasil, Uze, and Trigg— Vinci Capital 's investment accelerated its credit offerings, launching products such as personal and payroll loans, as part of a strategy to become a financial solutions hub focused on the low-income market, initiated two years ago.

Since then, DM has seen this initiative produce results and projects that, by 2028, a third of its revenue will come from this new vertical. "We made the four acquisitions, but we understood internally that living solely off credit cards wouldn't guarantee the company's survival," says Denis Correia, founder and CEO of DM, to NeoFeed . "If we didn't slightly change the course of how we see the company's future, we're going to have problems."

With an offering that includes older products, such as personal loans and the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) service, as well as more recent ones, such as private payroll loans , launched in September, DM moved more than R$ 700 million between January and May.

Even though efforts to scale up and bring this offering to the base began in January, the expectation is that these new products will represent approximately R$ 1 billion of DM's credit portfolio in 2026, which is projected to close at R$ 4.2 billion.

The idea is to gradually increase this participation. In the long term, the composition considered ideal by DM is that one-third of the result comes from private label , one-third from branded cards, and one-third from other financial products. Correia states that the expectation is to close this year with revenue of R$ 3.5 billion.

He points out that financial products bring greater sustainability to DM's balance sheet. While a private label card generates around R$70 in margin per customer per year and a branded card generates approximately R$120, a loan can yield around R$400 annually.

"When we look only at the credit card's performance, it's reasonable. But what will bring significant results for the company is the acceleration of the other products," says Correia.

According to him, the credit card business, whether private label or branded, faces a structural problem: interest-free installment payments. In this model, the company can only charge interest on revolving credit, financing, or when the customer fails to pay, but it cannot remunerate the outstanding balance of the installment plan.

The situation worsened with the competitive pressure caused by the offering of no-annual-fee credit cards. "If you don't charge an annual fee on a credit card, it doesn't make money," says Correia. "When I compare the revenue with the risk of this operation, it ceases to be attractive."

The expansion of credit offerings also required changes to the company's financing structure. For private payroll loans, for example, DM is structuring a R$300 million FIDC (Investment Fund in Receivables), expected to be launched in August, although it is already fully distributed.

Despite expectations regarding financial products, credit cards remain an essential part of DM's strategy to become a financial hub, serving as an entry point for customers, repeating the logic adopted by banks and fintechs when they popularized no-annual-fee credit cards.

"The strategy is to use the card to bring the customer into the database and then cross-sell other products, which have much higher profitability," says Correia.

He points out that the credit card market continues to grow above expectations, at a time when families are in debt and seeking alternative financing options to balance their budgets.

"Our initial thesis was to reduce the volume of cards and grow only in those products, but there is a lot of demand for credit in any form. The growth of credit cards is much more due to market needs than to any effort on our part," says Correia.

DM, however, has been proceeding cautiously to keep delinquency under control. Currently, the loan loss provision (PDD) is at 4.2%, below the 6% target for 2025. The index came under pressure immediately after the acquisition of Credz , whose delinquency rate was around 9%.

This scenario led the company to abandon its goal, set two years ago, of reaching gross revenue of R$ 8 billion by the end of 2026. "The level of household debt does not allow for granting credit. The challenge is to grant healthy credit, and this is a huge challenge for the entire market," says Correia.

Regarding repeating the M&A strategy applied to credit cards to expand credit offerings, Correia states that this remains in the plans. Currently, the company maintains agreements with partners to provide funding for loan operations and other products, while retaining the right of first refusal in a potential acquisition.

This is the case with Juvo, which specializes in loans secured by cell phones. DM provides the funding for the fintech and has an agreement that guarantees it the right of first refusal should the company receive a purchase offer.