Aflore

Our vision is to become the key digital channel to bring financial services to the underserved middle class in Latin America.

This vision is innovative and transformative because we are the only players combining tech and existing human relationships to reach and efficiently serve unbanked and underbanked populations in Latin America. We have a unique understanding of the market dynamics there, an essential component to lead the fintech revolution in the continent.
Five years from now, Aflore will be the key digital channel for financial services in Colombia, Peru and Mexico. In 5 years, we will have a IA network of 120,000+ IAs in these countries, generating over US$ 112 million in revenue.

The financial exclusion problem in Latin America can be partially explained by the lack of trust in banks and the preference for informal financial services, particularly in low-income populations. This preference has its roots on the existence of community leaders who are at the center of trust relationships and bring familiarity and flexibility to these structures. 

Aflore combines tech & data with the existing trust found in human relationships to bring financial services to the underserved middle class in Latin America. We combine high touch and high tech to build a trusted and effective relationship that serves community leaders and gives access to financial products to members of their trusted network.
How it works:
1. Aflore recruits & trains financially-savvy leaders and equips them with a mobile platform
2. Advisors offer financial services to their personal networks and follow-up with clients
3. Advisors make additional income through Aflore's incentive system

Aflore serves women through female financial inclusion through women-led conversations:

1) Informal Advisors: 76% of IAs are female. Female IAs play a key role in understanding the needs of women in their communities. IAs become role models, empowering clients around them. IAs receive training and personal development opportunities and a fair compensation for their role.
2) Clients: 57% of clients are female. Aflore gives access to financial services to underserved women in vulnerable conditions. 50% of female clients earn < 2 min wages (~US 500/month) / 3 in 4 female clients are main source of income for family / 4 in 5 do not have education beyond elementary school.

Aflore distributes proprietary and third party financial products through its network of Infomal Advisors in LatAm. In addition to our own products, we partner with third party institutions to distribute products through the IAs network. This allows Aflore to focus on its core competency of building IA networks while leveraging product portfolio and balance sheet of third party institutions to scale faster with no proprietary capital.

Aflore combines tech & data with the existing trust found in human relationships to bring financial services to the underserved middle class in Latin America. We combine high touch and high tech to build a trusted and effective relationship that serves community leaders and gives access to financial products to members of their trusted network.
How it works:
1. Aflore recruits & trains financially-savvy leaders and equips them with a mobile platform
2. Advisors offer financial services to their personal networks and follow-up with clients
3. Advisors make additional income through Aflore's incentive system

As for our scale strategy, in Colombia, Aflore will continue using both Aflore and third party products. However, in order to scale internationally more quickly, Aflore will fully leverage third party products whilst focusing on its core competency: building a powerful channel.

By leveraging tech, Aflore has developed a highly efficient operational model to reach the middle class. The multiplier effect of Aflore's IA network produces the highest productivity in the market, resulting in a highly efficient model with lower costs of loan placing and servicing. Our powerful analytics provide deep insight unseen in the industry, enabling a better assessment of the particular risk of the middle class demographic and the design of products to cover the real needs of customers.

Tech is central in Aflore's business model and scale strategy as it allows Aflore to simplify operations and ultimately improve customer experience.

1) IA App: allows IAs to provide a superior experience to customers with minimal effort:
a) Product Catalog: Full product portfolio easily available
b) IA engagement: Visible incentives & rewards system
c) IA Task Automation: Platform for follow-ups & reminders

2) Field Operations Platform: allows Aflore to efficiently manage field staff and IAs
a) Managing Credit Officers: Aflore manages large groups of decentralized full-time "credit officers"
b) Managing IAs: Field staff is able to manage own networks of IAs (~150 active IAs)

3) Data: Data allows Aflore to understand client behavior, improving product-customer match and reducing risk. By combining client and IA data with insights from their relationship, Aflore is able to better assess risk and design products that fit the needs of customers.

IAs become role models in their communities. They empower people in their network to manage their personal finances in a responsible way and achieve their goals.In addition to this recognition, IAs also receive trainings and personal development opportunities as well as a fair compensation for the time dedicated to their role.

Female IAs (77% of our network) play a key role in serving and understanding the needs of our borrowers, which are mostly women and many of them living in vulnerable conditions

Borrowers benefit not only financially but also in terms of financial education, as they have the chance to learn basic personal finances management from a trusted person in their network

IAs become role models in their communities. They empower people in their network to manage their personal finances in a responsible way and achieve their goals. Today, Aflore has recruited over 20,000+ IAs and currently has over 7,000+ active IAs distributing products to their network. We have disbursed more than $US13M in loans to 18,000+ clients.

Our digital approach is key to achieve a scaled impact. Today, 90% of loan applications are completed digitally through the IA app and 70% of active IAs engage digitally on a monthly basis.

Some of our key metrics are:

- # recruited IAs
- # active IAs
- Portfolio size
- Loans disbursed
- IAs productivity
- Default rate
- Average loan size
- Cross-selling (loans + insurance)
- App: downloads, MAUs & other usage metrics

Our main goals are for 2019 are:
1) Consolidate growth in Colombia and strengthen balance sheet, with aim to reach break even in 18 months
2) Further investment in technology and data intelligence to support efficient growth
3) Scale rapidly in Medellin through the third party model

1. Macroeconomic and credit risk

2. Competition and New entries threat

3. Operational risk

1. Macroeconomic and credit risk: external factor. Colombia's economic performance has an effect on the lending business. Slower economic growth in the last year has negatively impacted the financial sector, increasing credit risk levels. 

2. Competition and New entries threat: in order to lead the fintech revolution in Latam, Aflore needs to become the key partner for new fintechs to serve the middle class before other players take the role. 

3. Operational risk: Aflore's business relies on human resources through the whole process, from IA recruitment up to payment collections, as well accounting and other back process. Therefore, operational risk could arise from events caused by human interaction like fraud, human error, employee rotation, improper collection of information, which could jeopardize the normal operation process. Aflore has developed strong process in all operational areas in order to ensure maximum efficiency and reduce risk.

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Aflore was founded and is currently led by Ana Barrera and Manuel Jimenez.

- Ana Barrera, CEO and Cofounder: + 10 years of investment banking experience in major banking houses (Lehman Brothers and Nomura). MBA - London Business School. After working in banking in Europe for several years, Ana decided to return to her home country, Colombia, and use all the skills and experience acquired to design a unique solution to provide financial products to the underserved middle class in LatAm with an efficient operational model.
- Manuel Jimenez, COO and Cofounder: +12 years of retail and operational experience in Spain, UK and Colombia. Former VP-head of sales channel for Banco Falabella. MBA- IE

Aflore is also a Polymath Ventures company. Polymath is a company builder with a proven track record in Latin America. The builder supports its ventures throughout their lifecycle in areas such as Strategy, Investment, Product, Finance and Talent Acquisition and Development.

We have a partnership with Comfama (caja de compensacion), who manages payments that companies or individuals substract from their payroll/income, and give them back to their affiliates through education, leisure, employment solutions, health and financial solutions. Aflore is the originator for financial services to their affiliates through its IA network, as a mean to accelerate access and growth and to leverage in our propietary technology and credit methodology. Comfama provides funding, branding support and physical spaces.

Aflore distributes proprietary and third party products through its network of IAs in LatAm. 

Lending Business: Aflore offers proprietary and third party loans to the middle class with a Net Margin of 9% over outstanding portfolio.
Third Party: Aflore focuses on core competency of building IA networks, and leverages product portfolio and balance sheet of third party institutions to scale faster with no proprietary capital. This model allows a Net Margin of 4% over outstanding portfolio.

Aflore expects to achieve operational breakeven within 18 months. 

We are raising a $4M Series B round ($2M already committed) that will allow wo cover burn and leverage equity to raise debt to grow the portfolio.

As we shift towards the platform model with a diversified product portfolio and third party partnerships, we are seeking to strengthen our tech capabilities through our own team and external partnerships to develop an all in one solution that covers all the financial needs of customers throughout their lifetime.

We are seeking partnerships with 1) large financial services institutions that could partner with Aflore to distribute their products through the IA network in order to reach undeserved populations and 2) large tech companies in the financial services space that could work with us to develop strong digital solutions in order to become an integrated one stop solutions for financial services for the emerging middle class (for example, payments companies such as VISA or Mastercard to develop a pre-paid card for our customers)

At Aflore we have developed our own scoring system to evaluate the risk of underserved populations who have been neglected by banks and other financial institutions. Our solution uses a mix of statistical solutions. 

Developing a cutting edge AI based scoring solution is going to be one of the key challenges and priorities of our tech team. We believe that this prize would allow us to strengthen the tech team needed to develop such solution as well as access a powerful network of experts in the subject.

The Aflore model is built upon the communities where we operate. Informal Advisors, who are community leaders with a strong mission to support people in their circle, are the key to our model. Informal Advisors are considered role models in their communities and for this reason, Aflore empowers them by giving them the tools to help their friends and families. Aflore trains Informal Advisors in different communities and gives them the tools to fulfill their potential.

This prize would be extremely helpful to strenghten our Informal Advisors network by providing them with additional training and tools to further support undeserved populations in their communities. Additional opportunities for Informal Advisors is key to foster prosperity and social mobility, allowing them to earn an extra income and grow both in their personal and professional lives.

Aflore places a strong focus on empowering women in the communities where we operate. 76% of Informal Advisors and 57% of our clients are women. We strongly believe in the power of women-led conversations and for this reason, our team actively seeks to recruit female IAs in the communities. 

We beleive that giving access to financial services to underserved women is key to foster prosperity for women, their children and their entire families. This prize would allow us to further support women in their communities by giving them additional opportunities to become independent women.