“What do people want? They need money!”
Fixing the credit gap in emerging markets. Our latest episode of FUMO: future of money podcast is with Omair Ansari, CEO and Co-founder of ABHI, an innovative embedded finance platform rapidly expanding its presence from Pakistan to Bangladesh, UAE and beyond.
Fintech 1.0 was about building payments infrastructure. The next phase, especially in emerging and frontier markets, is credit fintech. In Omair’s words: all roads lead to lending. Credit in emerging and frontier markets, or lack of it, is a big problem that needs fixing. Earned wage access (EWA) and invoice factoring for SMEs is part of ABHI’s solution.
Credit is really what is going to allow for digitalization to happen across emerging markets, says Omair
Emerging market investing and operating is like time travel. What one country is ready for, another may not. You need to wait for the right time. Brazil in 2010 wasn’t ready for credit fintechs. By 2014 it was. Similarly, in 2018, Omair wasn't sure Pakistan was ready - but the digital catalyst of COVID-19 convinced Omair to swap NYC for Karachi.
Key Insights:
Credit Matters. The big unmet demand in emerging and frontier markets is credit. Fintech innovation can bridge this gap.
Localisation Matters. Your market needs to be ready for your product. You can't copy paste solutions from other countries.
Default Alive. In frontier markets, you can't run a business on the ‘burn rate’ model as in the Valley. Profitability matters. Your investors may disappear.
Smart Agents. Omair’s vision of Fintech 3.0 is one of mass personalisation based on intelligent agents, serving our needs from savings to credit.
Join us on a journey of discovery with the FUMO: future of money podcast where each episode is an adventure into the world where technology transforms possibilities into realities.
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