New York, 18 October 2022 — Girls’s World Banking Capital Companions II (WWBCP II) has introduced an funding in Latin American fintech firm Tienda Pago, representing WWBCP II’s ninth funding thus far. WWBCP II seeks to shut the gender hole in monetary inclusion, whereas demonstrating the enterprise case for gender lens investing by attaining enticing returns for its traders.
Small companies are basic drivers of financial growth in Latin America and characterize the overwhelming majority of companies and employment within the area. Nonetheless, they lack entry to funding, with knowledge exhibiting that Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) obtain solely 12% of whole formal credit score within the area. Tienda Pago helps to bridge this hole by offering small enterprise house owners with working capital through short-term stock financing on its digital platform. The corporate, which operates in Peru and Mexico, works with product distributors to offer seamless, cashless transactions that profit not simply store house owners, however suppliers as effectively, offering worth at each ends of the provision chain.
Tienda Pago’s providers had been of specific significance through the COVID-19 pandemic, as small retailers disproportionately confronted the challenges of lockdowns and supply-chain disruptions. Throughout this time, the corporate’s shoppers had been in a position to proceed stocking their inventories at the same time as gross sales slowed, and households stayed in enterprise regardless of the short-term shocks.
Leveraging Girls’s World Banking’s proprietary, data-driven organizational and market gender assessments, Tienda Pago will determine alternatives to extend publicity to potential feminine clients, in addition to entice and retain feminine candidates for employment. WWBCP II will work to make sure gender parity is a precedence in staffing selections, significantly in underrepresented know-how positions. The funding will even improve WWBCP II’s publicity to the historically underserved market of women-owned MSMEs.
“Small enterprise house owners are the cornerstone of financial growth, and entrepreneurship is a crucial piece of the worldwide technique to extend girls’s monetary inclusion,” mentioned CJ Juhasz, Chief Funding Officer at Girls’s World Banking Asset Administration (WAM). “We’re very excited to accomplice with Tienda Pago to offer entry to finance for this vital buyer base.”
“Our new and current traders’ continued assist of Tienda Pago’s enterprise mannequin and enlargement will permit us to develop and generate extra influence in our communities,” added Dan Cohen, CEO and founding father of Tienda Pago. “Small shops are on the coronary heart of their communities; their well being instantly impacts their neighborhoods. Immediately, over 68% of individuals working in small shops are girls caring for their households. Offering formal and steady credit score permits these girls to have their shops well-stocked.”
Girls’s World Banking Asset Administration co-led the Collection B spherical alongside IDC Ventures. Present Tienda Pago traders additionally participated within the Collection B spherical, together with Kaszek Ventures, QED, Accion Enterprise labs, Agrega Companions and Oiko Credit score, in addition to a brand new investor, the Alumni Fund.
About Girls’s World Banking Asset Administration
Girls’s World Banking Asset Administration (“WAM”) invests in progressive inclusive finance corporations in rising markets, guiding them to seize the substantial market share of financially underserved girls and the largely untapped expertise pool of ladies workers and leaders. WAM’s first Fund was a pioneer of gender-focused influence investing in inclusive monetary service suppliers. WWBCP II expands the gender-focused funding technique in progressive monetary service suppliers, with a devoted technical help facility to assist portfolio corporations obtain strategic goals towards gender inclusion.
About IDC Ventures
IDC Ventures is an funding fund that funds tasks that drive innovation and digital disruption. IDC Ventures focuses on corporations within the fintech trade, market, and platforms all through Europe, the US, and Latin America. Up to now, it has raised greater than USD $400 million for know-how corporations and supported tasks reminiscent of Curve, Bipi, RecargaPay, Merqueo, Securitize, and lots of extra.
About Tienda Pago
Tienda Pago (“TP”) is a fintech firm that operates in Mexico and in Peru. TP offers short-term credit score to small comfort shops within the area to purchase stock from established Client Packaged Good corporations (CPGs) and distributors. TP permits shops to obtain stock for every week, paying for these deliveries instantly through banking switch to the stock suppliers. Tienda Pago makes use of progressive cellular know-how and enterprise fashions to succeed in a inhabitants that’s financially underserved to foster monetary inclusion.
