New York, 18 October 2022 — Ladies’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 so 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 buyers.
Small companies are elementary drivers of financial improvement in Latin America and signify the overwhelming majority of companies and employment within the area. Nonetheless, they lack entry to funding, with information displaying that Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) obtain solely 12% of complete formal credit score within the area. Tienda Pago helps to bridge this hole by offering small enterprise house owners with working capital by way of 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 properly, offering worth at each ends of the provision chain.
Tienda Pago’s companies have been of explicit 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 have been capable of proceed stocking their inventories at the same time as gross sales slowed, and households stayed in enterprise regardless of the short-term shocks.
Leveraging Ladies’s World Banking’s proprietary, data-driven organizational and market gender assessments, Tienda Pago will establish alternatives to extend publicity to potential feminine prospects, in addition to entice and retain feminine candidates for employment. WWBCP II will work to make sure gender parity is a precedence in staffing choices, significantly in underrepresented know-how positions. The funding may also improve WWBCP II’s publicity to the historically underserved market of women-owned MSMEs.
“Small enterprise house owners are the cornerstone of financial improvement, and entrepreneurship is a crucial piece of the worldwide technique to extend ladies’s monetary inclusion,” stated CJ Juhasz, Chief Funding Officer at Ladies’s World Banking Asset Administration (WAM). “We’re very excited to accomplice with Tienda Pago to offer entry to finance for this essential buyer base.”
“Our new and current buyers’ continued assist of Tienda Pago’s enterprise mannequin and enlargement will permit us to develop and generate extra affect 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 immediately impacts their neighborhoods. At this time, over 68% of individuals working in small shops are ladies taking good care of their households. Offering formal and steady credit score permits these ladies to have their shops well-stocked.”
Ladies’s World Banking Asset Administration co-led the Collection B spherical alongside IDC Ventures. Present Tienda Pago buyers 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 Ladies’s World Banking Asset Administration
Ladies’s World Banking Asset Administration (“WAM”) invests in modern inclusive finance firms in rising markets, guiding them to seize the substantial market share of financially underserved ladies and the largely untapped expertise pool of ladies workers and leaders. WAM’s first Fund was a pioneer of gender-focused affect investing in inclusive monetary service suppliers. WWBCP II expands the gender-focused funding technique in modern monetary service suppliers, with a devoted technical help facility to assist portfolio firms obtain strategic aims towards gender inclusion.
About IDC Ventures
IDC Ventures is an funding fund that funds initiatives that drive innovation and digital disruption. IDC Ventures focuses on firms within the fintech trade, market, and platforms all through Europe, the US, and Latin America. Thus far, it has raised greater than USD $400 million for know-how firms and supported initiatives similar to 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 supplies short-term credit score to small comfort shops within the area to purchase stock from established Shopper Packaged Good firms (CPGs) and distributors. TP permits shops to obtain stock for every week, paying for these deliveries immediately by way of banking switch to the stock suppliers. Tienda Pago makes use of modern cell know-how and enterprise fashions to achieve a inhabitants that’s financially underserved to foster monetary inclusion.