First Access News & Activities

First Access offers instant risk scoring to financial institutions in emerging markets, who can now vet potential customers via SMS from any phone, based on financial and mobile data.

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30 Mission-Driven Startups You Should Know — Tradecraft

Many in Silicon Valley aspire to build products and companies that have the potential to create positive change on a large scale. Often…

“Many in Silicon Valley aspire to build products and companies that have the potential to create positive change on a large scale. Often, however, these companies can be difficult to find because they have smaller recruiting budgets, and their mission statements can get lost in the noise of startups claiming to be “changing the world.” To help, we’ve decided to put together a list of mission-driven companies that are attempting to make a big impact on the world.”

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In the last few years the fintech sector in developed markets has gone through a phenomenal boom. Fintech is the intersection of financial…

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Future of Fintech for Financial Inclusion: Seven Trends We’re Watching — Global Entrepreneurship Summit

Nearly four years ago, when Accion Venture Lab made its first investment, we set out to fill a seed-stage funding gap for innovative…

Companies that employ credit analytics, like DemystData, First Access, RevolutionCredit, and Aire, are finding innovative ways to work with new and existing data to help financial institutions make better credit decisions on customers with little to no traditional credit history...

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Caught in the middle

Big and tiny firms often find it easier to borrow than medium-sized ones

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) all over the world grumble about access to finance, but the problem is worse in developing regions. Around two-thirds of SMEs in poor countries cannot borrow as much as they would like, compared with a sixth in the rich world, says the International Finance Corporation, the corporate-lending arm of the World Bank. It put the “credit gap” for small but formal businesses in developing countries at around $1 trillion in 2011. Throw in informal firms, and the shortfall is even greater.

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Insight2impact | i2i is a facility advancing the impact of data in financial inclusion. It was established by Cenfri and FinMark Trust in 2015 to respond to a growing need amongst financial inclusion stakeholders for a platform to inform and support data initiatives.

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FINCA Microfinance Holding Company, an arm of US-based nonprofit microfinance network FINCA International, and First Access, a US-based financial technology company, recently partnered to create an alternative credit-scoring system to serve the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. This system aims to “establish credit scores for low-income clients who lack sufficient formal credit history to secure small loans to build businesses or support emerging personal needs.” Specific information on exactly how this system works is unavailable, but First Access typically analyzes demographic, geographic, financial and social aspects of clients’ mobile phone usage to predict credit risk...

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FINCA, a US-based microfinance organisation, and First Access, a New York-based data analytics company, have formed a partnership to start making loans over east Africa using credit scores derived from mobile phone data. This kind of uncollateralised lending has already started to transform...

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First Access featured in '10 Finance & Capital Companies to Watch' - Entrepreneur's Brilliant 100 > Entrepreneur.com

These companies are cashing in on innovative solutions to financial pain points.

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“Nicole Van Der Tuin is the co-founder and CEO of financial technology company First Access, which uses mobile phone payments as a stand-in for traditional financial records, providing credit risk scores for loan applicants in emerging economies—usually their first-ever credit evaluation. As of 2016, First Access has analyzed more than 50 billion mobile phone transactions and has helped reduce the lending costs for banks to evaluate borrowers by 65%. The U.S.-based company recently began expanding from its Tanzanian subsidiary; in 2016, it will operate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zambia.”

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Interested in the future of fintech? Check out @MIT Future Commerce course featuring @1staccess @nicole_vdt

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FINCA and First Access Announce World’s Largest Microfinance Fintech Collaboration

FINCA and First Access announced a new collaboration that will create the largest and most sophisticated credit-scoring approach by an MFI in the world.

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First Access is hiring a Lead Developer to join our team based in NYC!

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International Women’s Day

Happy Women's Day! Women have less access to financial services, land/asset titles, and venture capital: we're killing 3 birds with 1 stone!

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Women are less than half as likely as men to have an account in the Arab world. Why such a dismal record? According to @globalfindex, only 9% of #women in #MENA have financial account. #IWD2016

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Financial Inclusion Front and Center at #MWC16

At the MasterCard MWC16 booth at , we took the opportunity to host a group of startups that are using technology to advance the financial inclusion agenda.

Financial Inclusion Front and Center at #MWC16 @Mastercard @IFC @BIMA 

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Lot of Contacts in Your Mobile Phone May Get You Loans

They have no bank account, no credit score, no financial identity. So a quarter of humanity hasn’t been able to borrow money. Until now.

“First Access, a New York-based startup, mines data stored on Tanzanian and Kenyan borrowers’ mobile phones to recommend a loan amount to banks and microfinance lenders within 90 seconds. The proprietary algorithms can cut down clients’ underwriting costs by more than 92 percent, according to co-founder and CEO Nicole Van Der Tuin. Its backers include Capital One Financial Services co-founder Nigel Morris and The Social Entrepreneurs’ Fund, Bill Ackman’s venture capital fund investing in businesses that promote financial inclusion.”

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Financial Inclusion 2020 Progress Report

A key part of financial inclusion worldwide? Technology. Read the report: http://www.fi2020progressreport.org/   via @CFI_ACCION