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

Friday, September 28, 2018

These days, it is fair to say that data makes the world go ’round. Every day, 2.5 quintillion bytes of raw data are produced worldwide, and harnessing the power of that data has built better transportation systems, real estate markets, retail experiences, payment options, banking interactions and security systems, just to name a few.

When venture development organization Village Capital and PayPal look at the ever-expanding troves of data out there (financial data in particular), they see a special potential. All those financial data streams, according to Village Capital’s Managing Director Allie Burns, look an awful lot like the next great tool to be enlisted in the fight to expand financial inclusion in the U.S. and around the world.

That mutual interest in using data to build a more inclusive world is how the two firms first came to work together in March of 2016, to develop a program to recruit, train and mentor early-stage, up-and-coming FinTech startups that use data to solve access problems across a variety of categories. The partnership has recently selected its latest cohort of 12 FinTech startups for a venture development program that is also supported by BNY Mellon — all Pre-Series A, but “along a spectrum” when it comes to where they are in the corporate journey.

Photo courtesy of pixelfusion3d.