We invest in and build inclusive FinTech startups leveraging technology, behavioral economics, and industry expertise – creating innovative financial products and services. Our vision is to empower world-leading entrepreneurs to develop for-profit solutions that will drive financial inclusion in Africa and serve more than 1 billion people in this underserved market.
With 85% mobile penetration and only 20% access to financial services in Africa, we are facing one of the biggest windows of opportunity of our era; the opportunity to bridge the market gap and change people’s lives while building scalable profitable companies that consumers need and want.
Behavioral Economics studies how people behave and how the environment and external factors affect the decisions we make, assuming that humans are irrational. It is essentially the science of why we do what we do.
By understanding human behavior, decision making and motivations, we can help startups and companies make better products, value propositions, grow their user base and create greater engagement. In emerging markets we especially believe that technology and behavioral economics together can play a significant role in bringing financial inclusion.
With the guidance of Prof. Dan Ariely, we examine how people in emerging markets, and specifically sub-Saharan Africa, behave and interact with financial products and services; How is trust built? How do we introduce concepts like saving or insurance by using technology? How do we facilitate and help create new habits?
Based on our research, we develop methodologies that are applied to our companies’ philosophy, strategy and products – constantly testing and modifying to improve user experience and behaviors.