The solution to financial inclusion

• “We undertook a lot of training and development in [financial education]. I think the impact we can make is tremendously greater,” said Deep Singh, Founder & CEO of 500-backed fintech startup CrediLinq. “And what I mean by that is the ability to make a difference in someone’s life through financial inclusion, whether it is a single entrepreneur, or a partnership between husband and wife [at a] warung in Indonesia. That is their livelihood.”
• Interestingly, the CrediLinq we know today is different from what the team started out doing. “We had a very strong pivot in the first six months of our business,” Deep explained. “We actually weren’t on the path of being a digital lender, but what we realized was that there’s a tremendous number of existing platforms out there, and none of them were getting access to capital because of the non-traditional nature of their businesses.”
• The team has taken what they call the ecosystem approach, because they effectively have 3 clients — the e-commerce platform that needs an embedded finance product, the seller who is seeking immediate payment for sales and access to credit for growth, and the buyer who wants to buy now and pay later.
• How does CrediLinq convince businesses to adopt their financial services? “The first part we try to solve for is how do we help their business grow. So what we think about is educating them in the difference [having access to] credit can make,” he shared.
• What’s next for CrediLinq? Deep said, “I think we’ll add a bit more formal structure around the financial education that we can deliver. And that’s something that’s probably phase two as part of our growth.”
• Listen to the full podcast episode here.