What is the name of your organization?
ONOW Ascent Inc.
What is the name of your solution?
Ascent Ledgify: manage credit
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Chat bookkeeping that converts everyday messages into lender‑grade records for cash ‑based SMEs.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Carmel, IN, USA
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Thailand
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Ninety‑seven percent of Nigerian small businesses—and hundreds of millions across the Global South—still track finances on paper or from memory. Without auditable data they endure cash‑flow shocks, lose ten percent of working hours chasing debts, and face interest rates above sixty percent when they seek credit. The International Finance Corporation estimates a $5.2 trillion annual funding gap for 65 million emerging‑market SMEs, yet the true gap is larger given 270 million informal enterprises worldwide. Traditional accounting apps assume structured data and formal training, so adoption stalls and the funding gap persists.
What is your solution?
Ascent Ledgify is a multilingual chat interface that turns “Sold three sandals 4 500” or a quick voice note into ledger-hardened accounting, cash‑flow forecasts, and alternative credit scores. Our Financial Insights Engine uses LLM parsing, lightweight cloud ledgers, and 2G‑tolerant sync to deliver instant confirmations, morning cash‑balance nudges, and lender‑ready reports. It supports 150+ languages, tolerates imperfect data, encrypts records at rest, and exports to CSV. Paid pilots with FATE Foundation Nigeria, FAO Nigeria, and ONOW Myanmar ESO processed 30 k+ transactions for over 400 SMEs and, generated $69 200 in revenue, providing early signal of product‑market fit.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our primary users are micro and small enterprises - retail kiosks, tailors, mechanics, small farms - run by women and youth in urban and peri‑urban Nigeria and East Africa. They handle daily cash sales, extend informal credit, and typically earn under $10 000 in annual revenue. Because Ascent Ledgify works through WhatsApp or SMS, no new hardware or training is required.
Our solution reduces the challenge of remembering everyone who owes money to the entrepreneur, what the accounting numbers mean, and how to make the next sale.
As we scale to 16 000 users via existing ecosystem‑support‑organization partners (FATE, LSETF, ANDE, Youth Business International), SMEs gain financial clarity, exporters and lenders gain credible data, and local economies benefit from healthier, growth‑oriented businesses.
