Entrepreneurs

Fairplay supports the growth of e-commerce SMBs by fueling working capital for their performance marketing campaigns, inventory and logistics costs with a flexible, fast and friendly product. Fairplay uses data from the merchants’ online selling platforms and develops forecasting algorithms that allow it to predict performance, underwrite the merchants and offer personalized and flexible products to them. In addition to financial products, the platform also offers the merchants insights into their operation, trends, and market intelligence – a service that is currently unavailable on other platforms.

~68% of the working capital needs of most e-commerce companies are inventory, customer acquisition / marketing, and logistics cost. They often end up having to choose between these activities, as access to capital and funding is almost non-existent until SMBs reach a sizable scale – traditional fintech and banks are not designed / prepared to underwrite digital SMBs’ financial needs based on performance. This lack of funding can have a significant impact on business growth.

Niro is an embedded consumer lending platform which aims to address the lack of financial access for thin file & new to credit customers in urban and semi urban India. This segment does not have access to traditional financial lending models due to poor credit scores or no prior credit history. 

Niro aims at leveraging the data and distribution of consumer internet companies, to offer a holistic set of financial products (through partnerships with banks and non-bank lenders) to these underserved customers. Through its innovative distribution approach and robust credit underwriting, Niro will provide competitive and frictionless products that improve financial access for its target segment.

There are c. 400 million people aged between 18-33 years in rural and semi-urban areas, but the credit penetration in this segment is only 8 percent. Lack of financial literacy, trust deficit in the organized banking system, employment volatility, and a demographic skew towards lower age and income brackets are the fundamental causes of single digit credit penetrations in these geographies, creating a significant credit gap.

Cloudphysician is a healthcare services and med-tech platform enabling improved health outcomes by addressing the lack of access to quality critical care in ICUs across the globe, including tier 2/3 cities and beyond. Through its technology-driven tele-ICUs, Cloudphysician tackles the problem of limited ICU infrastructure and unavailability of skilled critical care physicians in remote locations. The Cloudphysician model and proprietary technology, RADAR_^TM, make it possible for small hospitals in these locations to provide their patients better, more cost-effective and efficient critical care solutions. 

Developing countries have chronic scarcity of critical care options per capita. Most ICU beds are concentrated in tier 1 and tier 2 cities, with limited or no critical care capacity in smaller districts and towns. For example, India has only 0.5 hospital beds per 1,000 people and 0.8 doctors per 1,000 people*.

*Source

Favo is disrupting the retail model in Latin America by becoming the first and largest community group buying company in the region. Currently operating in Brazil and Peru, Favo is an 100% online supermarket leveraging on community leaders who are responsible for customer management, customer aggregation and sales management.

For an average household in the region, it is estimated that food and transportation represent between 45% to 55% of the expenses for the low and middle income population.

Justo is the first 100% online supermarket in Mexico. The company prioritizes fair treatment of its suppliers and the environment, while providing convenience, quality and accessible prices to the mass market in Mexico and Latin America.

For the average household in Mexico, food and transportation represent more than 55% of their income and one out of five people in the country cannot afford to have a balanced diet. In fact, most households in the country do not have enough income to cover their estimated expenses per month.

Canasta Rosa’s online platform enables individual, micro and small entrepreneurs, typically women working out of their homes in Mexico, expand the market reach of their products.

In Mexico, only 19% of the MSMEs have an online sales platform in a market where 75% of the internet users made an online purchase.

SarvaGram is a household centric, predictive distribution platform catering to the financial aspirations of rural households. The uniqueness in SarvaGram’s approach comes from the strong link between financial services / other propositions and the household’s income generation / asset creation capabilities.

The total addressable market in the context of rural households is expected to exceed $10 trillion over the next decade

BEDU, an EdTech company, combines a proprietary tech-enabled platform and online curated content with an asset-light, offline model to provide courses that are linked to professional advancement.

About 20% of Latin America’s youth, or nearly 30 million individuals, are either not employed or not engaged in education or training.

InCred is a lending platform that uses advanced technology and data-science to enhance access to financial services for underserved Indian households and SMEs.

India’s 50+ million MSMEs face a $240 billion credit gap, that has only widened in the last five years. Similarly, approval rates for consumer credit have dropped by nearly 10 percentage points since 2016, while consumer credit demand grows sharply, indicating a large demand-supply gap.

The Better India (TBI) is a media platform that provides a curated audience for SMEs and other organisations to sell their products. Specifically focused on sustainability and social impact, TBI has launched its sustainable cleaning products private label, The Better Home.

Origa is India’s first leasetech platform helping SMEs enhance business capacity. By offering equipment leasing and lifecycle solutions, Origa is helping small businesses manage their equipment, in addition to freeing up their balance sheets by converting capex into opex.

Leasing accounts for less than 1% of MSME financing in India.

Bankingly enables financial inclusion by providing digital tools and services to financial institutions that cater to underserved and low income communities.

Only ~20% of major Latin American banks offer a smartphone app for banking services.

Vida Tec seeks to close Latin America’s literacy gap by offering students and the general population a suite of digital products for the discovery, management, and distribution of affordable, high quality and locally relevant Spanish language digital content.

According to 2015 PISA results, 46% of 15-year-olds in Latin America do not meet minimum standards of literacy and text comprehension.

LEAD’s mission is to empower India by making excellent education, accessible and affordable to children in underserved communities.

Based on a study in 2016, only 45% of grade eight students were able to read simple sentences in English and 43% were able to do a simple arithmetic division, a decline of more than 20 percentage points over six years.

Nuvemshop allows micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Latin America to access new sale channels by enabling the setup, management, and promotion of their online business easily and from any device, thus increasing their productivity and sales.

MSMEs in Argentina and Brazil account for >99% of enterprises and >64% of employment, and are concentrated in the commerce and services sectors.

Bike Bazaar (erstwhile WheelsEMI) provides a range of affordable solutions that drive mobility for working families, through financing, lifecycle management, and a transparent marketplace for two wheelers.

Mobility is a strong driver of employability in low-income communities and India is one of the world’s largest markets for pre-owned two-wheelers, estimated at over 12 million units per year.

Credijusto is a financial technology company focused on lending to the underserved and rapidly growing small and medium enterprise market in Mexico.

SMEs account for over 98% of the business units in Mexico, over 50% of the country’s GDP and roughly 3/4th of employment.

SecureNow offers general insurance products to SMEs with a technology enabled proposition that is core to its distribution and customer service.

General insurance penetration in India is around 1% of GDP against a global average of around 2.8%.

Indifi helps MSMEs thrive and grow by providing a technology based platform to bridge the critical financing gaps faced by this segment.

65% of MSME borrowers in India do not have access to institutional credit.

CreditMantri is a data-driven, digital financial services marketplace for borrowers with varying credit profiles, primarily focused on those with negative or no credit history.

Currently in India, 60% of bank loan applications get rejected due to negative or no credit history for the applicant.

Samunnati empowers smallholder farmers and agricultural enterprises by providing access to markets through financial intermediation, market linkages and advisory services.

The estimated credit potential in India for a few top value chains in Samunnati’s portfolio is over $30 billion.

Finae provides education loans to low income and lower-middle income students in Mexico pursuing advanced career-oriented studies.

Only 7% of young adults aged 19-24 from low and lower-middle income households in Mexico go to college compared to 87% of their peers from high income households.

Varthana provides infrastructure and project loans to help affordable private school entrepreneurs grow and improve their schools.

About 40% of all enrolled students in India study in affordable private schools, some with fees as low as $5 a month.

Glocal provides state of the art healthcare to the rural population in India through an integrated model of comprehensive primary & secondary care hospitals, digital dispensaries and technology.

In India, 75% of the population lives in rural areas that lack access to basic healthcare services.

Shubham provides home loans and home improvement loans to low income individuals and families in urban and semi-urban India.

The low income housing market in India is worth over $160 billion.

GloboKasNet (GKN) is the largest multi-bank payment network in Peru offering transaction, processing, settlement and bill payment services to low income urban and rural clients of banks, microfinance institutions (MFIs) and commercial wholesalers. GloboKasNet’s vision is to turn into reality the economic and social inclusion of any person, anywhere, without regard to distance or population density.

The Peruvian financial system processes over 57 million transactions per month.

Vistaar specializes in providing credit to micro, small and medium enterprises in India’s rural and semi-urban areas.

The overall demand for debt finance for MSME’s in India is estimated to be approximately $1 trillion.

Ujjivan Financial Services started operations as an NBFC (Non Banking Financial Company) with the mission of catering to the economically active poor who are not adequately served by financial institutions.

It now operates as a Small Finance Bank, which operates in urban and semi-urban areas and provides a range of financial services to individuals and businesses in low income communities.

It is estimated that the remaining global microfinance market opportunity is $320 billion.