Podcasts about accion venture lab

What if venture capital wasn't just about profit, but about people? Does everyone need to raise Venture Capital? Wouldn't you love to invest with purpose? In this episode, Rob sits down with his friend Matt Schaar of Accion Venture Lab, to unpack how investing in underserved communities, around the world, is reshaping the future of finance and how the Accion Group has been leading the way for more than 60 years. From empowering women entrepreneurs to bringing financial tools to the world's overlooked populations, Matt shares his unexpected journey from aerospace to impact investing—and why understanding real human stories is the key to driving real change.Feel free to follow and engage with MATT here:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattschaarInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/_schaar_Website: https://www.accion.orgWe're so grateful to you, our growing audience of entrepreneurs, investors and community leaders interested in the human stories of the Entrepreneurial Thinkers behind entrepreneurial economies worldwide.As always we hope you enjoy each episode and Like, Follow, Subscribe or share with your friends. You can find our shows here, and our new Video Podcast, at “Entrepreneurial Thinkers” channel on YouTube. Plug in, relax and enjoy inspiring, educational and empowering conversations between Rob and our guests.¡Cheers y gracias!,Entrepreneurial Thinkers Team.

In an era where authentic ecosystem engagement is highly-prized, this episode features a candid conversation with Jasiel Martin-Odoom, Africa Investment Officer at Accion Venture Lab, exploring the intersection of venture capital and connectivity-focused content creation and ecosystem building in African tech. Episode overview: Andile Masuku sits down with Jasiel Martin-Odoom to unpack his unique approach to ecosystem engagement, scaling personal impact through content creation and driving value for founders across Africa. Reflecting on his experience transitioning from investment banking to fintech-focused impact VC, Martin-Odoom offers actionable insights on building authentic connections in the digital age. Key topics: • Authenticity in digital ecosystem building • Content creation as deal flow mechanism • Impact investing in African markets • The evolution of venture capital engagement • Scaling personal impact through technology • Building sustainable founder relationships Notable points: 1) Martin-Odoom's consistent content creation spanning 792 days 2) His transition from 100 to 11,000 social media followers through authentic at-scale engagement 3) The development of AI-powered content scaling systems 4) Sneak-peek into Accion Venture Lab's investment thesis 5) Perspectives on democratising access to investor insights Listen in for practical insights into modern ecosystem building and venture capital engagement in Africa's dynamic tech landscape.

This week's Espresso covers news from Bucksapp, Realize, Moffin, and more!Outline of this episode:[00:27] – Bucksapp lands $1M in pre-seed[00:43] – Realize secures $300K from Investidores.vc[00:55] – Moffin raises $2.1M seed round[01:16] – Perhaps raises $1.7M pre-seed round[01:29] – Bits raises $330K to enhance AI use[01:43] – Eden raises $10M led by Sierra Ventures.[01:53] – Avra raised $2M in a round led by MAYA Capital[02:08] – Overview of Cali's entrepreneurial ecosystem[02:20] – Latamlist Roundup July 1st - July 15thResources & people mentioned:Startups: Bucksapp, Realize, Moffin, Perhaps, Bits, EdenVCs: iThink VC, BuenTrip Ventures, Investidores.vc, Accion Venture Lab,  Chile Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Quintal, Levain Ventures, Sierra Ventures

Jasiel didn't always know he would find himself in the startup world, but after an early career on Wall Street, he realized the need to rethink how we support and invest in Africa's most exciting entrepreneurs.  Hailing from Ghana, Jasiel is the Africa Investment Officer at Accion Venture Lab where he leads the growth of a dynamic portfolio of finance technology startups. In this episode, we uncover Jasiel's unconventional journey into the venture capital industry, and his fascinating insights as to why more investors need to focus on women-led startups in particular. With a deep belief in the transformational power of entrepreneurship in Africa, Jasiel brings a refreshing and reflective perspective on how we should go about building and investing in companies that have world-changing potential!  Join us for yet another exciting episode in The Boardroom this week! If you are interested in learning more about Jasiel and the amazing work he does, follow the link here to his Twitter/ X page. --- Join us in creating social impact through a cup of tea by visiting www.nepalteacollective.com Support our podcast further by pledging your support through our Substack Channel: https://boardroombanterpodcast.substack.com?utm_source=navbar&utm_medium=web&r=2myauy

In this week's Espresso, we cover news from, Nubank, Despegar, Apprenty, and more!Outline of this episode:[00:28] – IRSA announces the launching of Shefa[00:40] – ZoomAgri secures a $6M Series A round[00:53] – Apprenty secures a $1.6M round[01:07] – Despegar partners with Binance Pay and Inswitch[01:21] – Vetalia closes a $10M round[01:38] – Tenpo launches a new credit card[01:49] – Nubank reaches 85M customers in Latin America[02:01] – Licify secures $3.4M Seed round[02:17] – Bright raises $35.5M Series C round[02:35] – Latamlist's featured articles[02:53] – Crossing BordersResources & people mentioned:Startups: ZoomAgri, Apprenty, Despegar, Vetalia, Tenpo, Nubank, Licify.VCs: Shefa, GrainCorp, GrainInnovate, Canary, Brick & Mortar Ventures, Accion Venture Lab.People: Pedro Pablo del Campo

In this edition, I speak with Amee Parbhoo, Managing Partner of Accion Venture Lab, a leading global seed-stage investor in inclusive fintech startups. Accion Venture Lab is part of Accion, the pioneering nonprofit that has been investing in financial inclusion for the last six decades.I was excited to speak with Amee because she's on the front lines of identifying technologies that expand access to capital and financial services.In addition to getting an update on the fintech landscape, I was particularly keen to hear Amee's thoughts on how she sees the sector evolving — from one in which fintechs enabled the provision of traditional financial services, to one where startups are developing vertical-specific solutions with embedded finance. Amee shares a few of the verticals and themes she's particularly excited about, as well as a superb book recommendation … one of my favorites, in fact.Thanks, as always, for listening. I hope you enjoy this episode — and if you do, you should share it with friends, and if you feel so inclined, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts so that more listeners can discover this type of content.This podcast was recorded in April 2023.---Learn more about Accion Venture LabRead the Center for Financial Inclusion's report Green Inclusive FinanceGrab a copy of Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers---Music credit: Daniel Allan, “Too Close” released on Sound. You can learn more about Daniel's community-owned DAO that underwrote his latest EP here. (Disclosure: In addition to the “Too Close” NFT, Portico's founder Michael Casey owns $OVERSTIM tokens, as well as many other music NFTs; one of his Sound collector profiles is available here).

When Naureen Hyat and Humza Hussain joined forces with Nadeem Hussain, the founder behind the world's second-largest branchless banking solution, they decided to pivot their B2B microfinance business towards the consumer, giving rise to Tez, the first FinTech in Pakistan to get a digital lending licence. They made mistakes quickly and learned from them, creating a scalable and digital lending model with risk at or below the levels of the OpEx heavy manual models of old."Our first cohort was probably the best part of the learning journey for us, because we actually got over 50% defaults on that first cohort... And then the credit scoring engine started taking shape. And we started bringing defaults down from 50 to 40, 40 to 30, 30 to 20, 20 to 15. Then the tougher bit came because it was not only about the credit scoring, it had to be about the experience of the consumer, how is the product structured, from the first interaction of the consumer with the company till after he or she has been paid, everything matters... the latest cohort actually closed at under three percent default. This was uncollateralized cash lending to the masses, so yeah, it was quite an interesting experience and we learned a lot from it."Tez, now ZoodPay Pakistan, is at https://www.zoodpay.com/pakistan (or visit the group page if your interest are more global)ZoodPay is on LinkedIn, too, where you can also follow Naureen, with 50,000+ others that are learning from her journey (https://www.linkedin.com/in/naureen-hyat/) If you're interested in the broader fintech ecosystem in Pakistan, check out the Pakistan Fintech Network at https://pfn.org.pk/The early growth of Tez was supported by, among others, Accion Venture Lab and Omidyar Network who have both got indirect links to this show, via episode 42 with Jayshree Venkatesan (a primer on microlending) and episode 68 with Elena Botella (a lesson in responsible lending)You can learn more about me on my LinkedIn page, my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24If you would like to participate in the show, reach out to me at https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/contact-usRegards, BrendanOh, and if you're in need of more banking podcasts, you can find related content at https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode 13 of Season 9 learn from innovator, founder and social entrepreneur Paul Breloff. Paul has been working in the social impact sector for over 2 decades in a variety of innovative roles including currently as CEO and Co-Founder of Shortlist, a leading search, recruiting and upskilling startup connecting impact talent to opportunity across Africa and beyond.  Paul shares his rich experience and insights from developing and recruiting talent for a wide variety of regional and global social impact organizations. He discusses tips for how to work with headhunters, explore what are the key skills in demand, how the world of work is changing across Africa and his suggestions for candidates to be more competitive in their job searches. In addition, he highlights his lessons from working at the intersection of development, investment, startups and the global change industry for over two decades. For those seeking to scale innovative solutions to local and regional challenge, Paul will shares unique lessons from his work across a wide range of roles and the ups and downs (as well as maintaining one's well-being) in the impact world.  Paul is the Co-Founder and CEO of Shortlist, a talent advisory and executive search firm working across Africa and India. Since its founding in 2016, Shortlist has worked with 1,000+ companies and 1,800,000+ jobseekers across 30 countries. Before Shortlist, Paul was the Founder and Managing Director of Accion Venture Lab, a VC fund investing in inclusive fintech startups globally, and head of business development for SKS Microfinance in Hyderabad. He has also been a corporate lawyer and advertising account executive, and advises several startups and investment funds in Africa. He lives in Nairobi, Kenya.   This session is supported by the Rotary Peace Fellowship, a fully-funded master's degree or certificate in peace and development studies. 

Liza Curcio-Rudy is a Portfolio and Investments Associate for Accion Venture Lab. Liza supports and leads investments in early-stage fintech companies, guides our portfolio companies through strategic projects and engagement activities, and supports additional fund initiatives around gender lens investing and LP engagement. She is also responsible for the assessment of new investment opportunities and the development of investment theses, particularly in the US market. In this episode, we talk about: - Financial Inclusion across the world - How Accion is helping bring financial inclusion among the 3 Billion financially excluded world population? - Different funds Accion operates - Portfolio companies doing important work and lots more.. Links mentioned in the epiosde: Accion website - https://www.accion.org/ Liza's Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizacr/ Hosted by Prashant Choubey - https://twitter.com/ChoubeySahab Full episode blog at https://vc10x.com/financial-inclusiveness

This week's Espresso covers updates from Mentum, Dock, WexChange, and more!Outline of this episode:[00:28] - Colombian fintech R5 announced it raised a $7M funding round[01:10] - Mentum received $4.2M in a funding round led by Google's Gradient Ventures[01:45] - Argentinian tech academy HENRY announced it raised $10M in a Series A round[02:17] - Dock raised a $110M funding round and gained unicorn status.[02:50] - Mexican proptech Spot2 announced it raised a $4.2M seed round[03:25] - WexChange announced the finalists of the Women STEMpreneurs CompetitionResources mentioned:Companies & Startups: R5, Mentum, Plaid, Jeeves, HENRY, Dock, Spot2, Veloz, Jefa, Fitco, Talently.VCs, Accelerators, Institutions: Global Founders Capital. Magma Partners, Carao Ventures, Accion Venture Lab, Endeavor Catalyst, Gradient Ventures, Soma Capital, Investo, Y Combinator, Kayyak Ventures, Seaya & Cathay, Lightrock, Silver Lake Waterman, Streamlined Ventures, HOF Capital, Acrew Capital, H20, WeXchange.

In this episode of The Enterprise Podcast, Patrick continues his roundtable discussion with major fintech players in Egypt. This week, our private sector guests stuck around for an in-depth conversation on where the sector goes from here in terms of funding and consolidation — at home and abroad. The general consensus appears to be that while valuations in Egypt are still primed to go up, growth is expected to slow down in light of the current macro climate and historic pitfalls like the brain drain. The solution: More integration with Africa. But first, a refresher on our guests: Karim Nour, the co-founder of Kashat — the first nano-finance company in MENA providing financial services to the un- and under-banked. Omar Saleh, the CEO and co-founder of Khazna, which now offers general purpose credit; buy now, pay later (BNPL); and bill payment services. Aly El Shalakany, a corporate lawyer and longtime angel investor turned venture capitalist who is now the CEO of the Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund and an investor in Kashat. Ashley Lewis is a partner focused on Africa with Accion Venture Lab and has been investing in financial services and social ventures across sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia for over a decade. Lewis was one of the first investors at Khazna. ** Subscribe to Making it, our interview show where we talk to CEOs and business leaders in Egypt on how to build a great business. https://bit.ly/35lugvb. ** Subscribe to Enterprise, our 6am briefing on business, finance, and economics in Egypt at www.enterprise.press.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of The Enterprise Podcast, Patrick hosts a roundtable discussion with major players in the sector to discuss what’s next for fintech. Our entrepreneurs and investors take us through the untapped potential of fintech and which industries in Egypt are most primed for change through fintech. We also get rare insights from the central bank on what regulators are working on to help expand and propel Egypt’s fintech sector to the next stage of its development, including a new law to regulate crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending. Our guests are: Karim Nour, the co-founder of Kashat — the first nano-finance company in MENA providing financial services to the un- and under-banked. Karim is also the non-executive chairman of Tarek Nour Communications Group. Omar Saleh, the CEO and co-founder of Khazna. Omar joined us the same day his company announced a blockbuster USD 38 mn Series A round. Aly El Shalakany, a corporate lawyer and longtime angel investor turned venture capitalist who is now the CEO of the Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund. Ashley Lewis, a partner focused on Africa with Accion Venture Lab and has been investing in financial services and social ventures across sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia for over a decade. El Shalakany is an investor in Kashat while Lewis was one of the first investors at Khazna. Dr. Rasha Negm. Rasha is an assistant sub-governor of the CBE where she’s the head of fintech and innovation. Rasha is not a newcomer to fintech. A veteran of the banking industry, she led product strategy for Vodafone Cash before joining the CBE. ** Subscribe to Making it, our interview show where we talk to CEOs and business leaders in Egypt on how to build a great business. https://bit.ly/35lugvb. ** Subscribe to Enterprise, our 6am briefing on business, finance, and economics in Egypt at www.enterprise.press. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Accion Venture Lab provides support to early-stage startups looking to tackle financial exclusion around the world. Zendesk's Adam O'Donnell sat down with Accion's Senior Director Matt Schaar for a chat about: Strategy development with founders The importance of product market fit Why low-income customers shouldn't be overlooked

This week on Hub & Spoke, we will catch up with Amee Parbhoo '06. Parbhoo is the Managing Director of Accion Venture Lab. Hub & Spoke, presented by the Hurt Hub@Davidson, aims to build a strong community of entrepreneurs and innovators by sharing the stories of Davidson alumni, students, faculty, parents, friends, and our greater community. In these one-hour episodes, we will introduce and interview our storytellers and then invite the audience to ask questions and learn more. Every two weeks, we will feature Davidson entrepreneurs and innovators who have used their liberal arts education as a foundation for their success in creating their own businesses, leading teams, and driving innovation to solve the world's most pressing challenges.

Outbrain, a recommendation platform connecting advertisers with open web consumers, has announced its raise of $200 million in a private equity round from The Baupost Group at an undisclosed valuation. The fundraising comes a week after it filed a proposal for the IPO of its common stock with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.Lidya, a digital financial services platform, has raised $8.3 million in a pre-Series B funding round led by Alitheia Capital with participation from Bamboo Capital Partners, Accion Venture Lab and Flourish Ventures, reports state.Localyze, a Y-Combinator-backed startup aiding cross-border employee relocation, has raised €10M ($12M) from Blossom Capital in Series A. Its previous round (Seed) was closed in 2020, and with this funding, Localyze plans to accelerate expanding into other markets besides its base, Germany.Juni, an e-commerce platform, has announced the raise of $21.5M in a Series A funding round, co-led by DST Global and Felix Capital. The company had only launched in 2020 and raised its seed round funding around November last year. The proceeds from this funding would be used in product development and hiring across teams.San Francisco's mmhmm has announced the raise of $100 million in its Series B funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, exactly a year after its private beta launch. Since its launch in 2020, mmhmm has raised about $136 million in four funding rounds in less than a year, with the most recent Series A and debt financing round in October 2020, where it raised $35 million collectively, as per Crunchbase. Sequoia Capital, Mubadala Capital, Human Capital, World Innovation Lab (WiL), and many earlier investors participated in the round.Dataminr has bought WatchKeeper, a situational awareness platform, for an unknown sum. With the purchase of WatchKeeper and its integration with Dataminr Pulse, Dataminr will grow its global corporate customer base. As part of an early access program, business customers will be able to utilize the integrated version of Dataminr Pulse later this year. The broader release is slated for early 2022.ZeroFox, external threat intelligence and security firm, has bought Vigilante, a dark web threat intelligence firm. Vigilante will be incorporated into ZeroFox right away, giving customers a one-of-a-kind Dark Ops solution. Vigilante will provide clients with information and security resources, allowing them to make better decisions.Hopin, a platform for event management, has announced the purchase of Attendify to strengthen and expand its event marketing capabilities. Hopin will soon provide Campaign Manager with Attendify, allowing event marketers to leverage a strong email engine. Attendify's products, such as Audience CRM, a complete attendance data platform, will enhance Hopin's portfolio in various ways.Unit21, a no-code risk, fraud, and compliance software, received a $34 million Series B investment round led by Tiger Global Management. The money will be utilized to expand the engineering, R&D, and go-to-market teams within the firm. Unit21 was formed because the current method of fraud prevention and detection, which relied on “black box” machine learning, was flawed.Opaque, a company that helps businesses analyze encrypted cloud data, has received $9.5 million in a seed round sponsored by Intel Capital. With Opaque, clients can work with secure data on the cloud while guaranteeing that the data isn't exposed. Secure hardware enclaves and cryptographic fortification are part of Opaque, which is a mix of two essential technologies built on top of state-of-the-art cloud security.  Repeat has secured $6 million in a Series A round of funding led by Battery Capital. The funds will be used to grow the company's operations. Client purchasing patterns are tracked by the platform, which alerts them when it's time to repurchase. It then builds a personalized shopping basket for each, which makes replenishing a breeze.Cloverly has raised $2.1 million from TechSquare Ventures in a seed round. Customers may purchase carbon offsets from public markets to offset their carbon footprints while also utilizing technology to develop solutions. Cloverly monitors the offset market to ensure that the providers are trustworthy and continuously looking for new ones.Fountain9, an AI-driven company that focuses on predictive inventory planning, has raised $1.9 million in a seed round. The money will be used to improve the intelligence of the startup's demand sensing engine, increase its product offerings, and expand into new areas.San Francisco's r2C, a software security startup, has announced the raise of $27 million in a Series B funding led by Felicis Ventures with participation from existing investors Redpoint Ventures and Sequoia Capital. Alongside the funding, it announced on its official blog that its open-source product, Semgrep, would now integrate with GitLab.Seattle's WellSaid Labs has announced the raise of $10 million Series A funding led by FUSE, with participation from Voyager, Qualcomm Ventures LLC and GoodFriends. The company would use the fresh capital to enhance its AI-generated synthetic voice business.San Francisco's Renegade Partners has announced the close of its first fund, $100 million, to partner with companies going through a critical inflection point, which it cites as a supercritical stage, in their venture and help them become outliers. The VC firm made its announcement in a series of tweets.

“Most microentrepreneurs here in Brazil… don’t have a lot of the tools that a bigger business would get. And they were struggling a lot,” says Carlos Dejavite, co-founder of SmartMEI, on the final episode of a four-part miniseries of VentureKast. In this series, we discuss insights from Accion Venture Lab’s latest publication, which explores how fintech startups can “win from within” by focusing on building value for their existing users. SmartMEI’s app offers microentrepreneurs and other workers operating in the gig economy in Brazil — like delivery drivers, street vendors, and electricians — business solutions and a gateway to banking services. SmartMEI continues to evolve their platform and scale new products so these workers can succeed.

Accion Venture Lab's Amee Parbhoo joins the first episode of a four-part mini-series of VentureKast to discuss insights and strategies from Accion Venture Lab's latest publication, which explores how fintech startups can grow by focusing on building value for their existing users. Amee also shares highlights from the report's case studies of nine fintech startups that are pursuing these strategies around the world. CEOs from three of the startups featured in the report will be interviewed in later episodes of the series.

Sanjay Sharma is the cofounder of Aye Finance which is a finance company that provides business loans to micro and small businesses. The company has raised $300 million from top tier investors such as CapitalG, FMO, Accion Venture Lab, and Aspada to name a few. 

Sanjay Sharma is the cofounder of Aye Finance which is a finance company that provides business loans to micro and small businesses. The company has raised $300 million from top tier investors such as CapitalG, FMO, Accion Venture Lab, and Aspada to name a few. 

This week on the Finding Impact Podcast, we are talking about the challenges of maintaining culture as your social business scales, and tactics for how to adapt and scale your culture, with Paul Breloff of Shortlist. Paul's company, Shortlist, helps companies build and develop their teams through a new approach to hiring. Particularly, we'll be talking about Paul's experience as he grew Shortlist's team across two continents and to nearly 100 people and lessons he's learned from the entrepreneurs at companies Shortlist works with. On this podcast you will learn: The definition to the word Shwashbuckle. 0:58. Why why he got into “talent;” his background is mostly in non-talent social enterprise and impact investing after advertising and corporate law. For about 14-15 years now, very focused on financial inclusion and initially was part of a team who set up a community development bank in the US which led to Accion Venture Lab. https://www.accion.org/how-we-work/invest/accion-venture-lab The theme underlying all of this has always been looking at for-profit business models which can expand access to opportunities in different ways. 2:30. Saw a talent gap in companies and how culture could enable or disable teams in doing things.  Realized that investors comfort zone was talking about fundraising and strategy. The messy reality of building teams and getting the right people on those teams are something that doesn't get talked about as much, but they often make or break whether these companies work. So Shortlist emerged from those experiences. 6:12. Shortlist created a platform (now close to 1 million people) that connects skilled professionals to great careers in India and Kenya, using tech tools that automates the collection of data points beyond their CV. 8:08. How Paul came to define Shortlist's culture. 10:10. Culture should come from the co-founders. A key part of defining the culture was setting strong core values, which are: own it, act with intention, find the adventure, be a whole person, and one team. Core values can adapt! Shortlist added “one team” after realizing the importance of this after a merger with another company and now they make it a major priority. 18:56. Challenges he faced maintaining culture across multiple continents and what process or activities he put in place to help develop it. Tried to create consistency, and enough opportunities for exchange so people could get to know each other. But distributed teams is probably the future. 21:15. Things that have worked: 1) Creating global informal places to spark chatter and sharing of personality. E.g. Their global WhatsApp group is quite active, silly, not very professional, but lets people throw emoji's back and forth. 2) Creating face-to-face opportunities for real time connection, ie. making sure the team travels between India and Kenya. 3) Investing in technology that allows you to stay connected remotely. 4) Monthly remote town halls which get the whole office together to say hello to new employees, goodbye to employees moving on, promotions, etc. 24:30. Any pushback from Board members or investors about having too much fun? No. “A startup's most important product is the team, and making sure it works well. I think our stakeholders believe that and want us to invest in that.” 30:45. Resources that Paul would recommend to others: The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle, Setting the Table by Danny Meyer, Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh (Zappos CEO), Primed to Perform by Neel Doshi and Lindsay McGregor. 32:10. Resources from this episode: Shortlist company website https://www.shortlist.net/ The Meta-Culture of Building Great Teams https://medium.com/@paul_53628/the-meta-culture-of-building-great-teams-b08b8daf5023 One Team: A Fifth Shortlist Value Enters the World https://medium.com/@paul_53628/one-team-a-fifth-shortlist-value-enters-the-world-87d6fa7b828b The Power of Swashbuckle: How Shortlist Decided What's Important https://medium.com/@paul_53628/the-power-of-swashbuckle-how-shortlist-decided-whats-important-5ca817efcf51 Connect with Paul: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-breloff-5638b67/ Twitter https://twitter.com/paulbreloff?lang=en

Having created the fastest growing fintech company in Pakistan by on-boarding more than 70,000 people, Naureen Hyat, 33, co-founder and head of Tez Financial Services has a long way to go to reach her goal of financially empowering the 100 million people in her country who are unbanked or under-banked. Visa recently held a Shark Tank-style competition for women entrepreneurs in around the world in two categories, fintech and social impact. Hyat won the $100,000 prize in the fintech arena—despite a genuine integration of social impact in her model. The prize also included mentorship and access to Visa products and services. “Financial inclusion in Pakistan is extremely low. The World Bank estimates 100 million adults, out of a total population of 189 million, lack access to formal financial services. Low-income consumers in particular struggle to access credit, smooth cash flows, manage bumps and shocks, and save to meet their future goals,” says Tahira Dosani, managing director of Accion Venture Lab, a seed-stage fintech investor that has invested in Tez Financial Services and now serves on the board. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/30GMFAY.

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I'm Zack Miller. Many of our listeners might be familiar with Accion, the global non profit that uses digital technology to create a more financially inclusive world. Accion was founded in the 60s and has roots in microfinance. Fewer people know that Accion has a venture arm. Accion Venture Lab invests capital and provides support to innovative fintech startups with a mandate* *to improve access, quality, and affordability of financial services for the underserved at scale. Vikas Raj is a managing director at Accion Venture Lab and sits on the board of companies like Konfio, Self Lender, StreetShares, and Tienda Pago. We talk about his approach to seed investing with a social impact and certain trends that cut through Accion Venture Lab's portfolio. Vikas also hosts a podcast at Venture Lab entitled VentureKast (https://soundcloud.com/accioninternational) about the cool financial inclusion startups around the world and the entrepreneurs who build and grow them. Check it out. Vikas Raj is my guest on the Tearsheet Podcast. ***************** Before we hop into the interview, I'm excited to tell you about a new award program we're launching. Tearsheet's digitally-native awards programs are intended to be a better type of award program — no posh dinners or long speeches. We're serious about identifying the winners in our industry and making our celebration of them global, digital, and open. For March, we're looking for the Best and Most Creative Bank/Fintech Partnerships. We want to hear about collaborations between incumbents and tech players that go beyond just an integration and a press release. If your firm has a special story to tell about partnerships, we want to hear about it. To get more info and to submit your entry, go to the Tearsheet homepage and click on the Awards tab. Or go here (https://pro.evalato.com/303/)

In this episode, Hall T. Martin conducts an interview with Tahira Dosani, Managing Director of Accion Venture Lab. Hall and Tahira speak about her background in management consulting as well as what Accion Venture lab is and what they do. Accion Venture Lab is an investment initiative that drives financial inclusion globally. They invest capital in and provide support to innovative fintech start-ups that increase access to, improve the quality of, or reduce the cost of financial services for the underserved at scale. Hall and Tahira talk about seed funds, and what criteria they are looking for in startups and technology.

Caroline speaks to Tahira Dosani about how economically empowering women not only helps women – but also society at large. Tahira Dosani is the Managing Director of Accion Venture Lab, a seed-stage venture capital impact investing initiative focused on financial inclusion. Venture Lab provides capital and support to early-stage startups that leverage technology to improve […]

Accion Venture Lab is an initiative of Accion International that invests in innovative financial inclusion start-ups that improve financial access for people living in poverty. Because of their high risk level and remoteness, these start-ups traditionally lack access to capital and assistance that fosters experimentation and innovation. Venture Lab provides this flexible and patient capital … Continue reading Accion Venture Lab