NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Village Capital and Accion Venture Lab announced the winners of their program, Village Capital-Accion Venture Lab: FinTech Mexico 2015. The program partnered with the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth, Pomona Impact, and United IT Consultants, Inc. to support entrepreneurs making financial services more affordable and accessible for Mexicans who lack access to traditional financial services (“underbanked”).

A total of $125,000 USD was awarded to the two winning companies, Credilikeme ($75,000) and BillPocket($50,000). The two companies were selected by the program’s 10 other participating companies, which ranked each other according to team, product, social impact, financial projections, and other criteria.

Credilikeme(Culiacán Rosales) is an online lending platform that uses Facebook to reach, analyze, and engage borrowers. BillPocket(Guadalajara, Mexico) facilitates payments for more than 5,500 Mexican merchants using their mobile points of sale.

Over the last three months, this group of 12 entrepreneurs total received business development training, and mentorship from nearly 150 investors, industry experts, policymakers, and top business leaders in Mexico. The participating ventures in the program aim to create 100 jobs, provide approximately 200,000 low-income Mexicans with greater access to financial services, and help the program participants raise up to $1.4 million USD in investment capital and demonstrate 250% revenue growth.

“Village Capital has partnered with Accion Venture Lab, MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth, Pomona Impact, and United IT Consultants to help develop the entrepreneurial community in Mexico,” said Village Capital’s Executive Director, Ross Baird. “By supporting these great businesses in the program, we aim to build sustainable economic growth through financial inclusion, which will benefit local communities, entrepreneurs, and investors.”

Paul Breloff, Accion Venture Lab’s Managing Director, added: “Mexico has been a global leader in bringing to market innovative financial products, services, and technologies for lower income customers and small businesses. This accelerator program really brought together some of the best startups and players in the Mexico Fintech space, as cohort members, mentors, partners, and more. We’re excited for the entire cohort and are looking forward to following their growth.”