Finance is a complex field and has a lot of sub-fields where workers are sometimes very specialized, not all banks employees are bankers. For a kid, the bank is a place where we go to get the small piece of paper called money. For normal people, big banks headquarters are impressive and watching economic and stock markets news on TV is a challenge. People do not understand why their bank refuse to give them a loan? Why the interest rate is high? But a lot of them remember the 2008 financial crisis because they lost their jobs, savings, ...
For startups finance, banking, insurance, capital market is a fertile space. There is a lot of clerk jobs who can be replaced with smartphone apps. Fin-tech startups are actually very active in fields like trading, payment, loan,...
In low income countries where a lot of people do not have bank accounts, apps developed are about ROSCA, credit cards are not the norm. In relatively high income countries people generally have bank accounts but they struggle with their credit score and the apps developed are about how to improve credit score? Or how to manage 5 cards and get more rewards?
ROSCA (Rotating Savings and Credit Association)
On the Feb. 2021 the french embassy organised the Egyptian-french startup competition, EL GAMEYA was announced as the first place winner of the fin-tech category with a 9,000 USD prize. It's a ROSCA (Rotating Savings and Credit Association) application, in Egypt it's an old popular practice where people gather in groups of 6 for example or more and they put a saving/lending system where 5 make a deposit and one get a loan every month, the goal is to save enough money to face important expenses.
It's a peer-to-peer lending system with no banks intermediary, ELGAMEYA can help match more people wanting to become members of a ROSCA and brings exclusive offers from partners in exchange of management fees and commissions.
On the 24.June.2021 Bates college published an article announcing EQUB as the winner of bobcat ventures pitch competition with 10,000 USD prize, like EL GAMEYA it's also a ROSCA.
In October 2021 equbfinance.com domain name is not working and the app is still hosted the heroku.
The article cites LENDINGCLUB as a competitor, which is a corporation under DGCL Delaware general corporation law, publicly traded in the NYSE and heavily regulated under banking, landing and securities laws. This is not conceivable in other countries, where ROSCA concept is at it's best replaced with a non-profit microfinance NGO.
Improve your credit score
On the 24. Jun. 2021 panoramic ventures published an article announcing Swipe Credit as the winner of the first startup showdown pitch competition with 120,000 USD equity prize. The article explain that SWIPE CREDIT is an end-to-end digital-lending platform that delivers credit options for un-banked and under-banked U.S. Populations. An other blog-post in SWIPE CREDIT website explain that SWIPE helps banks and credit unions give loans to the under-served.
SWIPE CREDIT is kind of talking to the credit score software, according to EQUIFAX one of the credit bureaus, the credit scoring models generally look at:
- how late your payment were?
- how much was owed?
- how recently you missed a payment?
- how often you missed a payment?
What does SWIPE CREDIT mobile app do is respecting those requirements by using what they call the SMARTER AUTO-PAY that's triggered based on user cash flow and only when you have sufficient funds in your linked bank account, This way you are sure not to miss a payment.
SWIPE CREDIT report users status account to the three credit reporting agencies: equifax, experian and transUnion and that's how users can rebuild a credit score.
On the 8. Oct. 2021 NXTUS, Inc published a blog post announcing CEDAR CREDIT BUILDER as the winner of NXTSTAGE financial technology Pilot competition. CEDAR CREDIT BUILDER allows consumers with little or no credit history to strengthen their credit score using automated borrowing and repayment on a small-scale line of credit.
CEDAR is targeting people with no credit history like young new users 18-24 years old and new immigrants, when SWIPE CREDIT focus on the un-banked and under-banked in general.
Optimize rewards for multiple credit cards
On the 28. Jun. 2021, ERA Entrepreneur Round-table Accelerator published an article announcing LEVER as one of participants for it's summer 2021 program with an initial investment of 100,000 USD.
If you have 5 credit cards, it can be difficult to manage your finances: dates, balances, missed payment, cost of the debts, ... LEVER is a chrome extension that helps optimize rewards, track spending and improve credit scores.
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