FINANCIAL INCLUSION

OUR APPROACH

1.7 billion people around the world are excluded from participating in the economy.  Our entrepreneurs create financial services and products

 

to ensure that everyone regardless of their race, gender, religion, language, nationality or any other status,

 

has the ability to participate in the global economy.

WE INVEST IN LEADERS COMMITTED TO EQUITY

Samir Goel + Abbey Wemimo

Co-founders, Esusu

Bio

 

Esusu is a mobile platform built to help communities build financial resilience and credit through a digitized rotational savings system

 

THE FELLOWS

Samir is a social entrepreneur, writer, and connector committed to bridging the public and private sectors by bringing together diverse communities to solve the globe’s biggest challenges. Prior to Esusu, Samir co-founded and remains the Chair of Transfernation, a nationally recognized non-profit which uses technology to ensure excess food from events goes toward underserved communities across New York City. Abbey grew up living paycheck to paycheck  in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria. His family was excluded from the traditional financial system and turned to rotational savings to pay for school fees and put food on the table. An NYU Alum, Abbey is a recipient of the Africa Young African Committed to Excellence award, Sue W. Hancock Scholarly Excellence in Equity and Diversity award, US Presidential Achievement award and the National Excellence in Leadership award. In 2016, Abbey was selected by Queen Elizabeth II as a Queen Young Leader and joined the Royal Commonwealth Society in 2017.

 

THE SOCIAL ISSUE

Esusu allows people to build credit and create a name for themselves financially. America can be a difficult place to live, earn and make money if you do not have a robust credit profile. Esusu works hard to listen to both sides of the story- the renters and the landlords- to create equilibrium between the two parties. It is a platform that works for the financial health of the community using technology to empower individuals to build credit when they have no other paths to financial access.

 

 

 

Vaibhav Lodha

Co-founder, Ftcash

Bio

 

Ftcash is one of India’s fastest growing financial technology venture, recognized by Forbes, which aims to empower micro-merchants and small businesses across India through financial inclusion, using digital payments and loans.

THE FELLOW

Growing up, Vaibhav’s newspaper vendor, Pankaj, served his neighborhood for 35 years. Pankaj intended to scale the business beyond newspapers, but attempts to get a loan from the bank had been futile due to a high level of bureaucracy and paperwork. Pankaj is one of 60+ million micro-merchants in India who are unable to access capital from the banks as the financial institutions lack data and appropriate risk modeling systems assess their eligibility for loans. Vaibhav was inspired to start Ftcash because of merchants like Pankaj who are trying to operate and scale their honest businesses. Vaibhav was selected as a Davos50, Global Shaper, Acumen Fellow, Asia Development Fellow and Chevening Fellow with University of Oxford. He is an alumni from NIT, Trichy and Harvard Kennedy School.

THE SOCIAL ISSUE

Ftcash works to tackle financial division and accessibility issues for small businesses that may not have the right financial support while trying to scale their business. Ftcash is also customizable according to the merchant’s credit, which makes it manageable for different businesses with different income rates.