Competitors invitations later stage fintechs pioneering modern monetary options for the low-income ladies’s market to use; finalists and winner to entry premier fintech networks and sources
NEW YORK, Aug. 3, 2022 – Ladies’s World Banking introduced at present the 2023 Fintech Innovation Problem, a worldwide competitors to focus on and advance options to shut the gender hole by means of digital monetary providers. Now in its fourth yr and the one women-centered fintechs competitors, the Problem will present a platform for later stage fintechs working to handle the persistent challenges in serving the low-income ladies’s market.
In line with the most recent International Findex Report, the variety of ladies adopting digital monetary providers has risen dramatically since 2017, with the gender hole dropping from 9% to six% in key rising markets. However regardless of these advances, 742 million ladies are nonetheless excluded from the formal monetary sector, and ladies are 31% extra seemingly than males to have an inactive checking account.
Digital monetary providers can function an on-ramp for low-income ladies to undertake and use a big suite of formal monetary services, increasing ladies’s decisions and their monetary and financial resilience and empowerment. Low-income ladies characterize a big, untapped market alternative for digital monetary providers suppliers, significantly fintechs leveraging expertise to shut the gender hole in monetary providers.
“To attain the promise of inclusive progress for the worldwide financial system, ladies want equal entry to monetary merchandise, providers, expertise and expertise,” stated Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Ladies’s World Banking. “Fintechs are uniquely positioned to assist shut the digital monetary providers hole as a result of they’ve the power to supply services in a different way and might effectively meet the wants of low-income ladies in ways in which conventional monetary providers suppliers can’t or gained’t.”
Functions for the Problem might be open from August 3 to September 15. Entry classes embrace, however should not restricted to:
- Sending and receiving cash
- Credit score for women-led micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs)
- Security internet merchandise (insurance coverage, financial savings and pensions)
- Past cash (monetary and digital capabilities, and different enterprise help providers)
The highest 4 finalists of the Problem will take part in an in-person pitch competitors subsequent February in Dubai, and be fast-tracked for participation within the Ladies’s Financial Empowerment Accelerator, powered by the Miller Middle for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara College. They will even obtain pitch recommendation and a UX design session. The Grand Prize winner will obtain entry to key 2023 fintech occasions like Level Zero, Elevandi Connects, and the Singapore Fintech Competition, in addition to a speaker invitation at a Ladies’s World Banking Making Finance Work for Ladies occasion.
All female-founded fintechs that make it to the highest 12 of the competitors might be chosen for the first-ever Feminine Founders Circle, an unique community of like-minded female-founded fintechs, and might be promoted by means of a sturdy built-in communications, advertising and media marketing campaign.
“Taking part within the Ladies’s World Banking Fintech Innovation Problem drove us to study extra deeply how we will higher serve our ladies clients,” stated Rachel Freeman, Chief Development Officer at Tyme, a 2020 Fintech Innovation Problem Winner. “It gave us world recognition at an important time in our enlargement into the Asian market and through our current capital elevate, and we obtained invaluable suggestions from the judges that helped us refine our proposition.”
The highest twelve finalists and Feminine Founders Circle individuals might be introduced on October 26, with the highest 4 finalists introduced on January 9, 2023. The Grand Prize winner of the Fintech Innovation Problem might be introduced in Dubai, on February 16, 2023 following the pitch competitors.
The Fintech Innovation Problem is sponsored by the Invoice & Melinda Gates Basis (Main Sponsor) and Ernst & Younger LLP (EY US and Advancing Sponsor). Ladies’s World Banking’s core funders are Australia’s Division of International Affairs and Commerce (DFAT), the Swedish Worldwide Improvement Cooperation Company (SIDA), and Visa Basis.
About Ladies’s World Banking
Ladies’s World Banking designs and invests in monetary options, establishments, and coverage environments in rising markets to create higher financial stability and prosperity for ladies, their households, and their communities. With a International Community attain of 62 monetary providers suppliers in 35 international locations serving greater than 138 million ladies shoppers, Ladies’s World Banking drives impression by means of its scalable, market-driven options; gender lens non-public fairness fund; and management and variety applications. To study extra go to womensworldbanking.org.
Media Contact: Kelsey Thompson: kelsey.thompson@porternovelli.com
