Tange

Touch Finance for All: A Fintech solution that provides bank accounts and financial services using digital behavioral identity

In the Philippines 77% of adults do not have a bank account. A core reason for this is a lack of banking infrastructure and a lack of documented identity making it almost impossible to access traditional financial services.

Our solution, Tange, will directly address this problem by providing digital banking enabled by digital identity and the Philippines will be our first market. Tange is an app-only-bank focused on peer to peer payments across the Philippines, with a focus on its most underserved population. Despite low rates of financial inclusion, 40% of the Philippines now use a smart phone. Tange will leverage the growing trend of smartphone ownership and power it with a new approach of identification, digital behavioral identity.

Digital behavioral identity shows that the way our hands swipe, hold and interact with our smartphones are highly unique. For example, the angle we typically hold a phone, how hard we tap onto keys, or in which direction we typically swipe are metrics that together can accurately identify and authenticate users. This digital behavioral identity solves a complex problem in the Philippines banking system, how do you identify and give people bank accounts where they have no physical means of proving their identity?

Tange intends to partner with one of multiple start-ups that are currently developing digital behavioral identity and will integrate their software solution into our app to allow people without a national identity (document) to have a financial history, bank account, and more.

The reason Tange qualifies for the Mission Billion Challenge is because Tange will be the first digital bank for the developing world that uses a unique application of digital behavioral identity. We will be delivering an innovative identity solution to the population that needs it most. 1 in 5 of the 1.4 billion people who do not have access to financial services attribute this to a lack of documented identification, which means Tange solves both problems.

Additionally, all smartphone users have at least one Facebook account, which provides us with a natural channel to educate people financially on how to use Tange and why. We will also use a kiosk approach for rural areas, where people can pay cash and the money will be transferred to them on Tange.

Why the name Tange? Tange means Touch in Latin. Three reasons:

• In today’s world, many of us already use touch finance, where with one touch we can digitally transfer funds easily. This is not the case for all and Tange intends to bring that touch finance to them
• Latin is a dead language, but has been around for millennia as has behavioral identity, but has not been used to its full potential
• Tange wants to emphasize that touch and behavioral identity are things that are within us all and there should be no reason for inequality in financial inclusion nor identity

Tange is an application of an innovative technology: digital behavioral identity. It is an app-only-bank for the developing world that will use digital behavioral identity as an authenticator. It would be the first bank to use digital behavioral identity and will also be the first fully digital bank to enter the Philippines. Digital behavioral identity is being developed by dozens of start-ups, who are further along, which is why Tange chooses not to develop the software in-house. Instead Tange will partner with another start-up. This way Tange can focus on adoption strategy and a user-friendly design.

The identity and authentication component of Tange will be based on public private key cryptography, using the FIDO alliances industry standards on authentication and identity. This creates a framework where all metadata analyzed remains on the user’s device, with all corresponding computation happening locally. Our solution therefore surpasses traditional means of digital banking authentication and identification, by creating a more secure framework for authentication. Furthermore, as our solution those not require any user imputed data, we substantially increase the security and accuracy of our service. Passwords and one-time passwords, the current industry standard for banking authentication, have proven to be hackable and unsafe.  

Tange will immediately be rolling out a digital identity solution to its user base via our app. Effectively, our solution will have a focus around financial services but we hope to build a framework around digital identity in developing markets, using ‘who you are’ and not ‘what you have’ as the basis of your identity. We hope to partner with the government and other corporates in the Philippines to develop the digital identity ecosystem to increase its reach and impact. 

The digital identity component of Tange will be inbuilt into the app via a mobile SDK. From the user’s perspective, each one of Tange’s customers will have clearly explained disclosures and opt in frameworks to explain how their data will be used. Tange will develop a back-end platform using secure API calls to ensure constant user authentication and also access to vetted partners, such as government entities, medical services and corporates that may need a form of digital identity. As such usage of Tange will become a method of identification. 

Tange will be based on leading behavioral biometrics, which will grow to be a standard in banking authentication. We will focus initially on android devices, which have 82% market share in the Philippines and which are more relevant to our target user base due to a lower price point. We will then build a back-end platform with an open but permissioned API framework to allow for relevant data portability in line with our outlined user privacy framework. We will consider allowing access to our API platform to vetted and trusted partners, to enable user identification for vital services via Tange. 

Mobile infrastructure in the Philippines is rapidly developing, however data consumption will be a concern for many of our users. Our authentication processing will therefore be designed to consume a minimal amount of data, with any significant data consumptive activities to be conducted only over wifi, which is becoming widely available. Transfers and account activity will be enabled via a system of QR codes.  Our app will be built with a visual framework using iconography to clearly depict the various steps a user needs to take. 

Our vision over the next three to five years is to get everyone with a smartphones in the Philippines on Tange in order for them to have a bank account, a financial history, but also a digital behavioral identity. We hope to provide people living in very low-income circumstances with a means to change their household’s economy. After substantial penetration in the Philippines, we plan to expand to other emerging markets with similar characteristics. 

Harvard Innovation Lab - using legal advice, the space, other resources, and other entrepreneurs for brainstorming 

Social Innovation and Change Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School - attending workshops provided by them, getting advice from staff on social impact and root cause analyses

Harvard Kennedy School MPA program - currently a student in the 2020 class of the MPA, but also liaising with Professors and staff from the school on my Fintech (Professor Cavanaugh, Director Heffern, among others)

CEO/Founder - Rebecca Kersch

As an ex-strategy consultant with additional experience in non-profit and the UN, Rebecca has strong skills in problem structuring, strategy, analytics, business development, and the developing world. Rebecca is the visionary behind Tange who cannot sit still and has a drive and enthusiasm for solving seemingly impossible problems.

CFO - Allison Voss

As an ex investment banker, Allison transitioned into impact investing in Kenya and Colombia. She brings financial modeling skills, value chain analyses, due diligence, and strong communication skills. She holds the team's feet to the fire on financial sustainability, but also social impact. 

A freemium revenue model

A subscription model offered in the form of a premium account, with free additional financial services. This way, wealthier customers can pay for more add-ons, but the basic subscription will be free and will include all the basic financial services needed to establish financial history and stability.

The initial market Tange will enter is the Philippines, where 77% of adults do not have a bank account, largely due to also not having identity documents. Therefore, the addressable market allows for scale, but beyond the Philippines there is an additional addressable market of over one billion people without a bank account.

The additionality of using behavioral digital identity on the app also bypasses the need for a physical identity document. We intend to partner with start-ups already developing the behavioral identity tech and see ourselves as a powerful application and front-runner on this innovation.

Tange addresses the problem that the Mission Billion Challenge attempts to solve, but also goes beyond identity to spread financial inclusion. We are entering multiple innovation challenges with Tange, but none even come close to the overlap that this challenge has to Tange’s objectives. We feel this can be a strong and mutually beneficial partnership. The parties involved with this challenge will provide us with the right advisors and peers to help grow our solution, but will also ensure that we stick to our promise of social impact. Something close to our hearts and what we care about the most.

Adoption of the Tange app in the Philippines is a key barrier, which highlights a larger problem: creating trust so users will change their behavior of using cash. A solid financial education communication strategy is needed to achieve this, which will include a social media strategy as the number one messenger service used in the Philippines is Facebook messenger and nearly everyone with a smartphone has a Facebook account. We are currently recruiting a Chief Communications Officer to set-up this strategy with an implementation plan for the Philippines.