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> Posted by Center Staff
Do you want to know about the coolest financial inclusion startups in the world and how they work? Or the entrepreneurs behind these startups and how they got off the ground? VentureKast, or VKast, is a new podcast series from Accion’s Venture Lab that takes you directly to the entrepreneurs, offering a window into the converging worlds of impact investing, startups, fintech, and financial inclusion.
As you’re probably familiar, Venture Lab, or VLab, is an Accion investment initiative that provides patient seed capital and support to pioneering financial inclusion startups. What you may not know are all the innovations in business and technology that Venture Lab investees harness to provide customers with better, cheaper, and more appropriate financial services. VKast spotlights how these startups break new ground in the financial inclusion landscape, from the unique perspectives of the entrepreneurs that lead them.
The VLab team writes, “We want to celebrate our entrepreneurs’ journeys and let their voices be heard to inspire other aspiring entrepreneurs, to draw in investors and potential clients to their businesses, and to let the world know how cool financial inclusion entrepreneurship really is.”
The inaugural episode of VentureKast features Ranjit Punja, CEO and Co-Founder of CreditMantri, a Venture Lab portfolio company based in Chennai, India that offers financial advisory services to consumers that are underbanked, credit negative, or new to formal financial services. CreditMantri uses an automated web platform and call center to help consumers access their credit reports, understand their credit scores, improve their creditworthiness, restructure outstanding debt, and get access to relevant financial services. Check out the first VKast episode to hear Ranjit discuss, among other things, how he came up with the idea for CreditMantri, how he assembled his team of co-founders, and his vision for the company.
> Posted by Tyler Aveni, Research, PlaNet Finance China
Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending is on the rise – as evident by the hundreds of articles on the subject that have sprung up just this year. However, P2P, generally defined as individuals bringing together small sums of money to lend to other individuals, is hardly a new concept. Moreover, this process of lending amongst communities of small businesses and friends has been moving online for a decade now. And while money is now most commonly transferred between strangers, interconnectivity online has allowed the process to feel almost as intimate as lending among friends and family.
The two earliest entrants into the P2P industry have gained steady followings since their beginnings in 2005: Zopa, a large commercial P2P platform in the U.K. boasts high returns and low interest rates for participants; the U.S. non-profit Kiva facilitates philanthropic P2P lending, wherein microentrepreneur clients of “field partners” or local financial institutions in developing countries are paired with those willing to lend at a zero percent return (i.e. indirect P2P). Through nearly a decade of innovations and new players emerging, P2P has slowly become a disruptive force. Total origination remains moderate with some $2.4 billion originated through P2P in the U.S. last year, but growth has recently skyrocketed.The U.S. market is estimated to swell to$32 billion by 2016. By 2025, the global figure could be as much as one trillion.*
Why such fast growth?
> Posted by Paul Breloff, Managing Director, Accion Venture Lab
The following post was originally published on the CGAP Blog.
In my last post, we talked about the potential for start-ups to shake things up in the financial inclusion space. But where’s the real opportunity today? At Venture Lab, we’ve got our eye on a number of trends for 2013.
First, mobile. There’s no denying the increasing ubiquity of mobile phones – over 4 billion in the developing world and counting – and we’re excited to explore the ways that mobile phones provide a channel to reach people with financial services. Our financial inclusion community has long focused on the growth of Kenya’s M-PESA, and no doubt, with over 16 million customers and 80 percent of the nation’s population having used it last year, it’s an iconic story in a sector thirsty for scaled success stories. Hopefully, markets like Pakistan, Tanzania, and Mexico won’t be far behind.
But there are other ways mobile can enable more widespread access to financial services. Take Coda Payments, for example, one of our first investments working in Southeast Asia. Coda operates a payments processing platform that connects with mobile network operators’ (MNO) billing systems and enables customers to purchase digital goods with a straightforward deduction against prepaid airtime. Think apps, e-content, information services, insurance premiums, and more.
> Posted by Center Staff
During this holiday season we here at the Center have enjoyed finding festive greetings in our inboxes and, to a lesser extent, our mailboxes. Though amongst the lot, there was one message that stood out so much we felt compelled to share it.
Demyst.Data – a startup that aggregates and analyses “big data” to help financial institutions extend credit to underserved customers – emailed the below ode to one of our team members. Accion is an investor in Demyst through its new initiative, Venture Lab. In speaking about Demyst, Venture Lab Managing Director Paul Breloff recently said, “Demyst is a breakthrough technology that can help financial institutions around the world, including microfinance institutions, more efficiently and responsibly reach neglected customer segments with credit and other financial services.”
> Posted by Paul Breloff and Nathan Gonzalez, Managing Director and Senior Analyst, Accion Venture Lab
The following post was originally published on the Ashoka Changemakers’ blog.
We are living an exciting time for financial inclusion. The microcredit model proved it’s possible to reach the poor and underserved masses with financial services in a profitable manner and at scale.
While there is still plenty of work left to be done to expand access to basic livelihood finance, the next natural question is: what’s next? The socioeconomic base of the pyramid (BOP) needs a full range of financial tools to improve their lives, from credit to insurance to savings, transfers, and more—and traditional “status quo” models will likely not be sufficient.
Where will this disruptive technology and business innovation come from to realize the promise of full financial inclusion?
Startups can drive innovation in this space. Certain characteristics of early stage companies put them in a great position from which to experiment and develop innovative products, technology, and delivery models.
> Posted by Center Staff
Yesterday, Micheal Schlein, President and CEO, and Diana Taylor, Chairman of the Board, of Accion, released an op-ed piece on Forbes.com describing the launch of the Venture Lab. This exciting new initiative works to provide seed capital and support to innovative startups in financial inclusion.
The piece begins:
Over the last several years, the world has woken up to the enormous market potential of serving 2-3 billion people at the base of the economic pyramid. A growing cadre of investors recognizes that we can create new ways to meet the needs of this huge population in a sustainable, business-like way. A new wave of socially responsible funds, institutional investors, microfinance investment vehicles, banks and even conventional venture and private equity funds collectively have raised billions to invest in social enterprises. Read the rest of this entry »
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