Fintechs that Serve Unbanked and Underserved Girls Inspired to Apply
NEW YORK – As we speak, Girls’s World Banking introduced that the applying interval is now open for the 2021 Fintech Innovation Problem, a world competitors that goals to spotlight fintech improvements serving unbanked and underserved ladies to be able to construct ladies’s safety and prosperity within the face of worldwide inequalities.
Startup fintechs based mostly wherever on the planet that present monetary companies for unbanked and underserved ladies in rising markets are inspired to use. Options don’t must be solely for unbanked and underserved ladies however should present deliberate intent to be inclusive of reaching that phase of the inhabitants.
“Now greater than ever, fintechs are a vital driver of girls’s monetary inclusion. Fintechs signify such an thrilling alternative to make actual progress in closing the gender hole and make finance work for ladies. Fintechs are progressive, disruptive, fixing issues with their communities in thoughts, in a digital means – precisely the standards {that a} complicated downside like ladies’s monetary exclusion wants,” mentioned Mary Ellen Iskenderian, the President and CEO of Girls’s World Banking, a world group that designs and invests within the monetary options, establishments, and coverage environments in rising markets to create higher financial stability and prosperity for ladies, their households, and their communities. She continued, “Our fintech problem, now in its third yr, has rapidly established itself on the worldwide calendar by way of its relationships with innovators and collaborating fintech founders, and we’re wanting ahead to the progressive entries this yr.”
Fintech firms can apply in one in all two classes:
- Constructing Safety and Resilience: How may we allow unbanked and underserved ladies to construct resilience by way of handy, safe, and dependable entry to security nets to make sure higher equality in a post-COVID-19 world?
- Construct Financial Prosperity: How may we allow unbanked and underserved ladies to construct their enterprise and family earnings and drive financial development to make sure higher equality in a post-COVID-19 world?
Winners for the Fintech Innovation Problem can be introduced in October, and can obtain a slate of thrilling, new prizes, together with a personalized UX design steering session furnished by Visa Inc., an unique pitch assembly and suggestions session with Girls’s World Banking Asset Administration Crew., and 4 1:1 management teaching and suggestions periods with one in all Girls’s World Banking’s government coaches.
Girls’s World Banking additionally introduced immediately that this yr, will probably be including a brand new award to the annual Fintech Innovation occasion: the Feminine Founder Award, which is able to honor a feminine founder whose fintech qualifies for the Fintech Innovation Problem, and who demonstrates exemplary management in constructing an inclusive office whereas working as a vital driver for ladies’s monetary inclusion.
“Analysis exhibits that the variety of international fintech founders continues to be dominated by males, with ladies founders making up simply 7% of the whole. This tracks with the shortage of feminine participation throughout the monetary and regulatory sectors, and results in additional disenfranchisement of girls. We wish to be sure that fintech doesn’t comply with the identical path of constructing gender bias into its infrastructure by highlighting and celebrating the progressive ladies on the forefront of the way forward for monetary companies. It’s time for progressive ladies founders to be acknowledged and celebrated,” mentioned Iskenderian.
Girls’s World Banking wish to thank Ernst & Younger LLP for his or her sponsorship of the Fintech Innovation Problem in addition to core funders Australia’s Division of International Affairs and Commerce and the Swedish Worldwide Improvement Company (SIDA) for his or her ongoing assist of our work.
For extra data on the Fintech Innovation Problem and the Feminine Founder Award, please go to the web site.
****
About Girls’s World Banking
Girls’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 world attain of 56 companions in 31 international locations serving greater than 69 million ladies purchasers, Girls’s World Banking drives impression by way of its scalable, market-driven options; gender lens personal fairness fund; and management and variety applications. To study extra about Girls’s World Banking, go to womensworldbanking.org.
Contact:
Holly Shulman
holly.shulman@gmail.com
(202) 674-8757