Proof points from Uganda for unlocking capital for women and refugees
A trio of initiatives in Uganda are successfully unlocking financing for women, refugees and other vulnerable communities long overlooked by the continent’s biggest …
Tagged with: financial inclusion
A blueprint for outcomes-focused financial inclusion
Scrutiny of impact investing has never been higher. The ability to credibly project expected outcomes and demonstrate their actual performance—both positive and negative—is …
Financing worker ownership conversions with Todd Leverette
Todd Leverette, Founding Partner of Apis & Heritage, joins the pod this week to talk about investing in employee ownership. Tune in to …
Navigating the path to purpose: Lucas and Eric’s stories
In the first episode of Season 2, we turn the mic back on ourselves with our longtime friend and colleague Rodney Foxworth of …
Tech solutions for solopreneurs can make self-employment more than a side hustle
As we observe the five-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, the workforce has undergone a profound transformation. In the early days of the …
Credit: Accion Center for Financial Inclusion
How digitalization is – and isn’t – helping informal and small businesses in emerging markets
The Covid pandemic spurred a mad dash to keep informal and small businesses afloat with digital technology and enterprise software. To prove such …
Credit: Accion Center for Financial Inclusion
For business digitalization to drive positive impact, we need to focus on consumer protection
They run taxi services, take in laundry, sell groceries, style hair, and give new life to ailing cell phones, among a variety of …
Credit: Vinte
Vinte financing unit secures $24.4 million for affordable home financing in Mexico
For 25 years, Vinte has been developing housing that is both sustainable and affordable for Mexico’s low- and middle-income families. Its three-year-old financing …
Ashley Lewis, Managing Partner at DPI Venture Capital
Development Partners International acquires Egyptian fintech fund manager
DPI has for nearly two decades offered growth equity to African businesses focused on financial inclusion, healthcare services and supply chain efficiency. The …
Higala raises seed funding to reduce the cost of rural lending in the Philippines
The cost of payments, lending and money transfers remains exceedingly high in many rural parts of the world. Manila-based Higala makes back-end software …
Accion and Mastercard support Frubana to extend credit to Brazil’s small food businesses
Sao Paulo-based Frubana is supporting small food businesses and farmers by helping them connect through an online marketplace. It’s now expanding into financial …
FairPlay secures $10 million to help AI-using financial institutions reduce bias
More businesses are using AI algorithms to streamline high-stakes decision-making, from approving loans to pre-screening job candidates to managing medical care. FairPlay launched …
Raliat Sunmonu; Vice President, Middle East and Africa at Accion
Ethiopian bank partners with Accion and Mastercard to boost innovation for small business financial products
Dashen Bank, with nearly 900 branches across Ethiopia, is teaming up with global nonprofit Accion and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth to …
Credit: Affinity
Ghana’s Affinity raises $8 million to bank individuals and small businesses
Fintech companies often launch with a core product – small lines of credit, savings, mobile wallets – and build on as they add …
Accion Venture Lab backs Foyer to support America’s first-time homebuyers
Levels of homeownership, a key source of wealth in the US, has dropped with every generation since the 1930s. The decline is especially …
FinMaq raises $29 million in debt and equity to provide equipment financing to Colombia’s small businesses
Bogota-based FinMaq uses alternative credit-scoring to help informal, micro and small businesses borrow to acquire equipment to boost their livelihoods. FinMaq provides loans …
LemFi co-founders Ridwan Olalere & Rian Cochran
Remittance app LemFi lands $53 million to build financial services for African immigrants
Canada-based LemFi was founded in 2021 to give the growing population of African immigrants quick and affordable ways to send money back home. …
IMPAQTO Capital provides revenue-based financing for tuGerente in Bolivia
Santa Cruz-based tuGerente provides digital inventory and financial management support for Bolivia’s informal and small businesses to help them streamline operations, boost capacity …
HUB2 snags $8.5 million to expand digital payments in French-speaking Africa
Early-stage investor TLCom Capital led an $8.5 million Series A investment in Ivory Coast-based startup HUB2, which handles payments for mobile money providers …
LeapFrog Investments closes fourth fund at $808 million
LeapFrog Investments has been in the market since 2022 with its fourth fund, targeting a cool $1 billion. It closed the fund about …
How fintechs are bridging the gender-based financing gap in Latin America
At ALIVE Ventures, we believe that applying a gender lens across our investment processes and supporting investees in implementing gender-smart business practices isn’t …
Credit: Banco Contactar
Accion invests in Banco Contactar to drive digital financial services to rural Colombia
Accion has invested $15 million investment in Colombian bank Banco Contactar via its $152.5 million Digital Transformation Fund that helps microfinance and other …
Tumoni lands $2.3 million to bank Central American migrants and their families back home
Remittances, a major source of income for many emerging market households, often exclude – or exploit – underbanked and unbanked individuals. Flows between …
ALIVE Ventures invests in Colombia’s AgriCapital to finance smallholder farmers
AgriCapital has for six years served as a bridge to formal financing for Colombia’s nearly three million farmers, nearly half of whom live …
Increasing women’s financial inclusion with top-to-bottom gender strategies
Many financial services providers in lower-income countries serve more women than men. Some serve women exclusively, providing access to credit, savings, insurance and …
India’s Finova lands $135 million amid crackdown on usury by four non-banking financial institutions
Jaipur-based Finova Capital is a non-banking financial institution that offers personal and home loans to India’s urban and rural poor. The firm also …
Credit: Lami
To reach customers and build trust, inclusive fintech ventures cut in the middlemen and women
In markets where fragmentation and inadequate infrastructure create massive inefficiencies, you might think “cutting out the middle men” is the answer. Instead, many …
Citi makes a $15 million social trade loan to boost small business lending in El Salvador
Citi Social Finance, the social finance arm of the multinational investment bank, is leaning into Latin America. Its latest deal is a social …
UK-based digital remittance payments startup Zepz rakes in $267 million
Somali refugee entrepreneur Ismail Ahmed launched Zepz in 2010 amid frustrations with the high costs of transferring money back to his family in …
Suma lands $3.8 million and acquires Mooch to promote financial inclusion for US Latinos
Suma Wealth, a fintech company in Los Angeles, wants to “spice up” sometimes dry topics of investment, debt management and wealth creation. Its …
Credit: Two Point O Capital
Two Point O raises $6.3 million to provide green loans to India’s small businesses
To encourage uptake of renewable energy, the Indian government passed a $9 billion subsidy program to support the adoption of small-scale solar systems. …
Sucharita Mukherjee, CEO of Kaleidofin.
Kaleidofin clinches $13.8 million to expand banking access for India’s informal borrowers
Chennai-based Kaleidofin uses AI and machine learning algorithms to help lending partners such as banks and microfinance institutions sharpen credit assessments on low-income …
ClassBank snags pre-seed funding to bring financial literacy to students in underserved communities
Former middle school teachers Abby Cole and Katie Gracey founded ClassBank (then called ClassEquity) in 2021 to create a financial literacy curriculum for …
Paymob lands $22 million to scale merchant payments across the MENA region
Egypt’s Paymob launched in 2015 as e-commerce was taking off in the country. The company’s app provided merchants with otherwise limited access to …
HSBC provides Validus with $50 million in debt to fuel small business lending in Indonesia
Small businesses in Southeast Asia employ 85% of the region’s workforce and contribute nearly half of its GDP. They face a financing shortfall …
Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine
Proparco joins $65 million consortium for small business lending in Palestine
Palestinian businesses were underserved even before the latest war tore through the territories, devastating businesses, infrastructure and livelihoods. France’s development finance institution Proparco …
Photo by Stori.
Mexican fintech startup Stori raises $212 million in debt and equity
Since 2017, the number of fintech startups in Latin America and the Caribbean focused on financial inclusion has more than tripled to more …
HealthCRED lands $1.2 million to finance India’s small and independent healthcare providers
Delhi-based HealthCRED provides loans to India’s hospitals, clinics, insurance providers, medical equipment buyers and other health services players. “The healthcare ecosystem faces a …
Djoin raises seed funding to modernize Indonesia’s microfinance institutions
Credit unions and financial cooperatives play a key role in helping Indonesia’s largely unbanked population gain access to financial services, especially in rural …
A ReCircle plastic processing facility in Mumbai (Photo: ReCircle)
SecondMuse adds ‘plastic credits’ to the global effort to combat pollution and waste
In South and Southeast Asia, a cottage industry of plastics recyclers has bubbled up to process the waste collected by thousands of women …
European development finance agencies put up $20 million to boost lending to small African enterprises
The Regional MSME Investment Fund for sub-Saharan Africa, a mouthful of a fund known as REGMIFA, aims to foster a diverse funding ecosystem …
Accion invests $10 million in Los Andes to digitalize micro-lending in Peru
Los Andes, based in the rural town of Puno on Lake Titicaca, has provided access to finance for households, farmers and businesses for more …
Mexico’s OCN lands $86 million in debt and equity to expand gig-worker car rentals in the US, Brazil
Apps for ride-sharing and food delivery are fueling the expansion of the gig economy in Latin America, which had more than 51 million …
Accion and Chile Ventures lead $2.1 million round for Moffin’s alt-credit ratings in Mexico
Many Mexican consumers, particularly in rural or underserved communities, lack traditional financial histories and bank accounts. Financial services firms use Moffin’s software to …
Tunis, Tunisia
SPE Capital raises $140 million to invest in North Africa’s small and growing businesses
Tunisia-based SPE Capital Partners launched in 2016 to provide growth capital to small and mid-sized businesses in North Africa and the Middle East. …