My participation at the WBAF 2020 world congress
I always try to attend our member World Congress WBAF 2020, because it presents a unique mix of angel investors (all successful entrepreneurs in their own right), senior government policymakers, and others focused on supporting dynamic SMEs.
A Zurich-based fintech firm whose investors include Josef Ackermann has raised additional money to value the company at more than $1 billion as it prepares to expand outside its main market of Germany. Numbrs Personal Finance raised $40 million to bring the total capital invested to almost $200 million, Chief Executive Officer Martin Saidler said in an interview. Numbrs offers an app that enables users to manage their existing bank accounts in one place and to buy financial products.
This SME Finance Forum webinar will build on the January 2019 alternative data, scoring and risk management webinar which highlighted that the smaller the firm, the less conventional the data that is usually available. This can make access to formal credit and financial services more difficult to obtain, due to both perceived risks from traditional lenders and the potential higher cost of lending.
Ammar Khalid, Helena Molina, Susannah Horton, and Patteera Mae Chaladmanakul are second-year International Development students who recently traveled to the Philippines, to gain a deeper knowledge of possible financing models for youth entrepreneurs. Throughout the year, the team conducted a global stocktaking on successful models for financing young entrepreneurs. The forthcoming report will be published jointly by the IFC's SME Finance Forum and the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion.
A new study seen exclusively by Yahoo Finance UK shows how difficult it is for women in Britain, compared to men, to start their own business.
Yahoo says, men are three times more likely than women to have over £250,000 ($320,479) of investible assets – essential capital for getting a business started – according to private equity house IW Capital. Their 2018 Women’s Entrepreneurship Index has also shown how men are 52% more likely than women to have more start-up capital than their parents.
Washington, D.C. November 6, 2018 – Accion became the newest member of the SME Finance Forum, a global membership network that brings together financial institutions, technology companies, and development finance institutions to share knowledge, spur innovation, and promote the growth of SMEs.
In recent years, there has been a renewed appreciation for the critical role SME-focused development banks play in the economies of many countries. Besides supplying much-needed capital to businesses during times of crisis and recession, development banks are increasingly supporting essential change.
SME Finance Forum member Development Bank of Nigeria is working to aid in providing finance to MSMEs. Calling it a "nightmare," its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Tony Okpanachi, was appointed in 2017 with the mission to alleviate the financing constraints faced by MSMEs and small corporates in Nigeria. The Sun says his job remains to provide financing, partial credit guarantees and technical assistance to eligible financial intermediaries on a market-conforming and fully financially sustainable basis.
According to Boston Consulting Group research, when women business owners pitch their ideas to investors for early-stage capital, they receive significantly less funding — a disparity that averages more than $1 million— than men. Yet businesses founded by women ultimately deliver higher revenue—more than twice as much per dollar invested—than those founded by men, making women-owned companies better investments for financial backers.
SME Finance Forum member, Creditease Fintech VC Fund, has invested in 25 U.S. and Chinese companies since its founding in March 2016. The P2P and wealth management, China-based firm invests in spaces that are underfunded, particularly those in SME lending. In this Forbes interview, managing director of Creditease, Anju Patwardham, shares details on the fintech companies she has selected to invest in.
