2023年5月4日

村资本和贝宝的FinTech:美国2017项目结束上周分享在过去的几个月里,村庄资本和贝宝在生态系统合作伙伴的支持下提供了培训和资源来十二早期企业解决财务状况。数以百万计的家庭和小企业在美国在金融紧缩。近7000万美国人既无,许多小型企业很难找到公平的和负担得起的资本和financinal服务的访问。十二个企业参与我们FinTech: 2017计划(上周总结)都是为经济上创造创新的解决方案服务水平低下的消费者和小型企业。他们是一个多元化集团,致力于解决方案从实惠的地震保险来寻找更多的可负担得起的汇款和资金服务。上周,在程序的最后一天,企业家穿过村庄独特的peer-selected投资过程:作为一个群体,他们所选的两个同龄人接受报价来自乡村的投资资本。这两个企业认为大多数investment-ready弗吉尼亚北部Paykii和旧金山Finix支付。Paykii:帮助移民管理他们的“第二家庭”回家的纳尔逊·伊Paykii向其他企业家群体近期许多移民住在美国实际上是管理两个家庭:一个在美国,一个在本国。去年,全球移民发送超过4000亿美元回到家人和朋友来支付水电费等基本需求。发送这些“汇款”就像是一个全职工作:发送现金可以负担,,很难跟踪由亲人如何花费这笔钱,通常老年人,大洋彼岸的生活。 Fabian Sade and Nelson Irizarry both knew this from experience, having managed domestic bill payment networks in Latin America where they saw first hand the challenges of paying bills on time in financially underserved communities. They founded a company, PayKii, that helps expats like them pay directly for loved ones’ water, electricity and other utility bills back home. Unlike other remittances services, PayKii coordinates a direct electronic payment to the utility company, rather than a cash transfer to the family member, which makes the process smoother and adds accountability. Co-Founder Nelson Irizarry tells a story from their first month of operations, when the company was looking to work in Pakistan. They found that more than half of balance inquiries from utility companies were past due, meaning they hadn’t been paid on time. PayKii’s system has since started helping these Pakistani families pay their bills. Though they are just over a year old, PayKii already processes over 100,000 transactions a month, with money going to thirteen markets in Latin America and Asia. They have partnerships with several major remittance providers, including Xoom (a PayPal service), and Al Fardan Exchange, one of the largest remittance companies in the United Arab Emirates. Finix: Getting payments in people’s hands, faster Richie Serna of Finix presenting during the program Imagine you’re an Uber driver. You’ve finished your all-night Saturday shift, and want to use some of your hard-earned cash to pay a bill, or enjoy a movie. Except you’re not paid right away, you need to wait for the middle of the week to receive a weekly direct deposit into your bank account. Gig economy workers are just one group of people that are limited by antiquated systems like paper checks or Automated Clearing House (“ACH”) direct deposits, which can take up to three days to process. Finix co-founders Richie Serna and Sean Donovan hit on a solution: their product enables push payments over debit card, allowing for real-time disbursements to debit cards anywhere around the world. Richie and Sean came to this idea from personal experience. Richie talks about growing up with family members who were underbanked and living check-to-check. “They didn’t have a checking account, so they would get paid through check-cashing businesses, which were both slow and had high transaction rates,” he said. The co-founders are excited to test their idea in creative ways, like coordinating easy payments from a class-action lawsuit, or dispersing funds around hurricane relief. Last month Finix closed a $2 million seed round, and they’re building from there. FinTech: US 2017 was part of a broader collaboration between Village Capital and PayPal throughout 2017 and 2018 to support financial technology innovators in the United States, Latin America , India , and sub-Saharan Africa . This collaboration is expected to support dozens of unique solutions to financial challenges faced by individuals and small businesses worldwide. Thank you to everyone who participated in FinTech US: 2017. Find our more about the program here .