Using Mobile Technology to InVest in Communities
InVenture believes in the power of entrepreneurs at the Bottom of the Pyramid when they are equipped with financial accounting tools. InVenture created InSight, a tool to reform the financial sector.
Sobre ti
Sobre ti
Nombre
Patrick
Apellido
Furlong
URL en Twitter
URL en Facebook
Sobre tu organización
Nombre de la organización
InVenture
Sitio web de la organización
País de la organización
Estados Unidos, CA, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County
Países en donde este proyecto está creando impacto social
India, TN
Tu organización es
Empresa
¿Cuánto tiempo ha estado operando la organización?
1-5 años
¿Tu organización ha recibido premios y/u honores? Cuéntanos sobre ellos.
2012 Top 5 Most Promising Social Enterpreneurs by Bloomberg Businessweek
2012 Sankalp Forum Finalist - Technology for Development
2012 Vodafone Finalist - Wireless Innovation Competition
2012 Raised $200,000 in current convertible round from notable angels
2011 Raised $300,000 in Seed Capital through equity investments
2011 Echoing Green Fellow
2011 Unreasonable Institute Fellow
2011 Young Challenger – Global Social Business Summit
2011 William James Foundation Finalist
2010 Winner of TechCrunch LA Demo Pit
La información que brindes aquí será usada para llenar las partes de tu perfil que hayan sido dejadas en blanco, como intereses, organización, y sitio web. Ninguna información de contacto será hecha pública. Por favor desmarca esta casilla si no deseas que esto suceda..
Innovación
Nombre de tu iniciativa
Using Mobile Technology to InVest in Communities
Selecciona la fase que describa mejor el momento en el que se encuentra tu emprendimiento
Crecimiento (tu iniciativa piloto ya se está aplicando y se empieza a expandir)
¿Cuánto tiempo se lleva poniendo en práctica tu iniciativa?
Operando entre 1-5 años
La necesidad: ¿Cuál es el problema que tratas de solucionar?
As the rate of micro-lending continues to increase, microfinance portfolio risk worldwide has also increased. The increase in defaults and administrative costs is in large part due to the lack of reliable ground-level data. Higher default rates can result in higher costs of credit for micro-borrowers. Greater transparency is needed for microfinance institutions (MFIs) to mitigate loan risk and approve micro-borrowers who fit within their program parameters.
La solución: ¿Cuál es tu solución? Sé específico.
InVenture is pioneering a standardized credit scoring system for unbanked individuals to qualify for financing -- something more than 2.7 billion individuals lack. Currently, there is no other organization in the market providing financial literacy, accounting and credit scoring through a text-messaging platform. The data captured by our product InSight will help us understand how bottom-of-the-pyramid (BoP) individuals, households, and businesses manage money. InVenture then provides the education, financial metrics and partnerships to revolutionize the low-income financial service industry.
InSight provides entrepreneurs a convenient, easy to use tool accessible through any text messaging cell phone that provides them financial literacy and accounting assistance. We are also able to use the data we get from these entrepreneurs daily entries, and create a unique credit score for them that banks and microfinance institutions use to provide credit to previously unbanked people.
El Modelo: Muéstranos a través de un ejemplo específico cómo tu solución hace una diferencia, incluye tus actividades primarias
No download is required to use our mobile application—it works entirely over SMS. This makes the app accessible to borrowers in the developing world who do not have smartphones or computers. Use is simple: it only requires sending a single daily SMS to our local access number.
Using a basic combination of numbers this message records expenses and revenue for that day. A message of “2000 1000” indicates 2000 INR of income and 1000 INR of expenses. If interested, the user can also use a basic key of letters and numbers to enter more detailed information about the nature of their expenses—whether it has been spent on food, travel, etc. Whether it is a basic revenue and expense report or a more detailed budget, the information in the SMS is routed through an SMS-gateway to InVenture’s cloud database. After the database receives this information, it replies with an SMS confirmation of what the user reported.
Users can view their aggregated income and expense information by sending simply “0” to their access number. The reply to this message is an SMS stating weekly income, expense and profit information. Finally, a user can request help by sending “00”. A staff member calls that member to answer any questions. InSight currently works in eight languages: five Indian dialects, French, Spanish and English.
El mercado: ¿Quiénes son tus pares y competidores? Identifica a otros que también estén trabajando para dar respuesta a las necesidades que tú abordas y en qué te diferencias de ellos. ¿Cuáles son los desafíos que estos jugadores podrían representar para tu éxito o crecimiento?
Our main challenge is the current lack of accounting and financial literacy. Currently, there are no direct competitors.
Potential competitors include First Access (Tanzania) and Micel (Mexico). InVenture’s focus on combining real-time
accounting and demographic data provides clear differentiation and a market advantage from our competitors.
Impacto social
Esta presentación se trata de
¿Qué solución/es propone tu iniciativa para mejorar la vida de las niñas y mujeres a través del apalancamiento de tecnologia/s? (selecciona todas las que apliquen)
Acceso a tecnologia, Acceso a oportunidades económicas.
¿Cuál ha sido el impacto de la solución hasta la fecha?
InVenture is currently providing InSight services to two lenders and five NGO partners. InVenture is currently charging these institutions for portfolio servicing and lead generation. InSight is helping these organizations better manage the risk of their portfolio while helping the entrepreneurs using the product attain greater financial literacy and accounting acumen to help them manage their business. Our first group of users will soon complete their initial lending periods using the technology, and we'll then have an even better idea of how much their savings and revenue grew.
¿Cuál es tu impacto proyectado para los próximos 1-3 años?
InSight has the ability to transform the finance services industry by increasing
efficiency, reducing costs and risk and has the potential to lower interest rates
across emerging markets. Additionally, through the use of InSight, individuals
have increased revenues, higher savings and financial literacy rates.
InVenture is initially targeting the Indian market with 30.1 million micro-
borrowers. By 2016, we plan on reaching 30 million users on InSight across
emerging market countries.
Three years from now, we'd like to see individuals who use InSight growing their business, and finding access to more affordable forms of credit than before they worked with us.
Las iniciativas ganadoras presentan un plan fuerte de cómo van a alcanzar y realizar un seguimiento del crecimiento. Identifica tus metas a seis meses para el crecimiento de tu impacto
In six months we want to have 10,000 users on InSight gaining financial acumen and better access to credit.
Identifica tres grandes tareas que tendrás que completar para llegar a las metas de seis meses.
Tarea 1
We will be hiring field staff to manage on the ground programs far away from where our staff is located.
Tarea 2
Expand financial literacy trainings from one time sessions to recurring sessions to ensure users grasp the concepts.
Tarea 3
Create a web portal that will help us manage the transparency that is needed when we go to find 10,000 users.
¡Ahora piensa en grande! Identifica tu meta de impacto a 12 meses.
In one year, we want to have 40,000 users utilizing InSight.
Identifica tres grandes tareas que tendrás que completar para llegar a tu meta de impacto a 12 meses
Tarea 1
We will be hiring someone with a high level of experience in business development to be our business development director
Tarea 2
We hope to partner with an MFI to enter the market in Kenya.
Tarea 3
We are looking to create ten new MFI and bank partnerships.
Historia de la fundación: Queremos saber acerca del momento en el que hiciste "¡Ajá!". Comparte la historia de dónde y cuándo el/los fundador(es) vio (vieron) el potencial de esta solución para cambiar el mundo.
Working for the United Nations Population Fund, Shivani got a chance to go into the field and talk to microfinance borrowers, and really learn about their daily lives. Does your daily life feel better as a result of these programs? What Shivani found was that most of the time the answer was no, their lives weren't getting any better. She started InVenture as an organization that would crowdsource funds to invest in a business but a year ago, we saw that was also lacking. Maybe what India needed wasn't more loans, but rather smarter access to manage that capital.
There is an entire layer of companies that are below small and medium enterprises, they're micro enterprises. People often don't believe these businesses can really grow. Maybe we can't value them the same way we do a corporation, but there is value and potential there! She started InVenture to give people an opportunity to enter formal financia markets, receive better loans, and learn smarter ways to manage financesl.
Sostenibilidad
Cuéntanos sobre tus alianzas.
We have a few partnerships with NGOs on the ground in India: Unnati, Ashwini Mahila Snagha, IYD, and Vistaar. Working with these nonprofits will give us greater access into the communities we want to work in. We will be training the NGO's in the use of InSight, and those NGO's will be able to serve as support for the entrepreneurs that decide to use InSight. We are exploring other partnerships with other groups working on the ground in India, as well as Kenya.
Por favor, pon en claro las necesidades u ofertas que hayas mencionado anteriormente y/o sugiere categorías de apoyo que no están especificadas en la lista
We are always looking for ways to fund and publicize our innovation. The most important idea of InVenture Foundation is to provide opportunity for entrepreneurs that other organizations deem too risky to work with. We strongly believe in providing access to credit, and providing that access alongside financial literacy training.
| Adjunto | Tamaño |
|---|---|
| InSight- money management and big smiles! | 1.13 MB |
| An infographic that explains how InSight works | 167.76 KB |
| Curious how InSight works- here it is in action! | 104.65 KB |
 | 42 weeks ago Ami Gosalia said: Thanks Joshua! It's been great to work with so far so we are excited to see where it goes! In regard to She Will Innovate, we focus very ... about this Competition Entry. - leer más > |
| 42 weeks ago Joshua Caleb Collins said: Hi Patrick, Great idea! I think it has unbelievable potential to impact the micro-lending industry. Focusing specifically on the She ... about this Competition Entry. - leer más > |
| 42 weeks ago Ami Gosalia said: Hey Cynthia, Thank you! We are working on the G2012 app as we speak. I appreciate the heads up! about this Competition Entry. - leer más > |
| 43 weeks ago Cynthia Drayton said: Hi Patrick, Thanks for entering the She Will Innovate Competition. Are you also aware of our G2012 Mexico Financial Inclusion ... about this Competition Entry. - leer más > |
| 44 weeks ago Ami Gosalia updated this Competition Entry. |
| 44 weeks ago Ami Gosalia updated this Competition Entry. |
| 44 weeks ago Ami Gosalia updated this Competition Entry. |
| 44 weeks ago Ami Gosalia submitted this idea. |