FinAccesso

We're tackling the issue of financial exclusion by helping people gain access to credit and digital identity tools in a secure, private way. Globally, 1.4 billion adults lack proper access to financial services like credit and insurance, limiting their growth opportunities. In Honduras alone, around 5.6 million adults face this challenge. Only about 10% of Honduran adults have borrowed from formal financial institutions, mainly due to a lack of relevant borrower information.

Marginalized groups, especially low-income individuals, women, micro and small entrepreneurs, informal workers, and rural residents, often lack the traditional financial records that banks require, such as pay stubs or collateral. Instead of focusing solely on these conventional metrics, what if financial institutions tapped into the alternative financial data that these underserved communities possess?

Despite not having formal financial records, these individuals leave behind digital footprints that reveal their income, spending habits, and investment patterns. However, this information is often overlooked because it's difficult and expensive to collect and verify, and many institutions don't see its commercial value. Consequently, these individuals are either rejected by financial institutions or remain invisible in the financial system.

At the Omnis Finclusion Foundation (OFI), we're developing digital tools and funding vehicles to help these marginalized communities leverage their financial information. By harnessing their digital footprints and providing them with low cost easy to access financing, we aim to empower them with tailored financial services that meet their unique needs and circumstances.

Omnis Finclusion Foundation is on a mission to make sure everyone has access to financial services, especially in developing countries. We're tackling the challenges faced by people who don't have bank accounts, as well as those lacking access to credit and other financial services. FinAccesso provides two main financial access solutions: the "Financial Inclusion Fund" (FIFund) and the "Omnis Digital Platform (ODP)".  The combination of these solutions helps the underserved to access low cost loans and other financial help and at the same time access innovative technology to manage their financial records to help them evolve in their relationship with financial service providers (FSPs).

Here's how it works: We connect FSPs (like microfinance institutions) with people who need financial help. These institutions get access to money at low costs, along with tools and information to find and help people who don't usually have access to loans or other banking services. On the other side, entrepreneurs or the financially underserved get access to relatively cheap loans that they might not be able to get otherwise, because even microfinance institutions focused on the underserved usually don't want to take risks of underwriting these types of loans.

We're starting this project in Honduras with the help of USAID. Together, we're supporting young entrepreneurs who want to start their businesses. USAID has been teaching these young people the skills they need to succeed, and now, with our help, they can get small loans to kickstart their businesses. Entrepreneurs with viable business ideas and training can get the money they need, while also building up a digital record of their credit history.

USAID has provided FIFund an initial grant that will be used to give out these low-cost loans to young entrepreneurs through a local microfinance partner. We will bring in more partners so we can reach out to more prospects. We also want to get more donors and investors involved, so we can keep scaling our solutions and grow the number of beneficiaries.

Our ODP is at the heart of everything we do. It keeps track of who these entrepreneurs are and their financial history, all stored safely in digital wallets. This makes it easier for FSPs to trust them and give them loans. Plus, it helps us reach people who live in areas where FSPs don't usually go.

Our platform uses technology like Google Cloud and special software for fingerprint recognition. It's designed to keep people's information safe and make sure everything runs smoothly.

We're not just about giving out loans, though. We also make sure that everyone involved understands what's going on. We train the people who work at the FSPs so they can explain our program clearly to their customers. And we make sure everyone knows their rights when it comes to their personal information.

In short, we're using technology, funding and partnerships to make banking and financial help available to everyone, especially those who need it most.

Our target market is composed of all financially excluded individuals within our target geography(ies). We are currently focused on Honduras, and then will expand to other Central American and similar markets (Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico) over the next five years. In Honduras, only 10% of adults over 25 borrow from a financial institution (Findex 2021). 

As mentioned, we are currently piloting our solution in collaboration with USAID in Honduras. In this initial phase, we are working with USAID to identify youth entrepreneurs (between the ages of 18 and 35) who are first-time entrepreneurs to develop digital identity profiles and credit histories and connect them with a microfinance partner to access below-market-rate loans. 

In speaking with USAID, our microfinance partner, and other local partners, we have identified that first-time entrepreneurs, and in particular youth entrepreneurs are more likely to be denied loans from traditional lenders. Several reasons contribute to this phenomenon, including lack of experience, viable business plans, business-relevant skills as well as inexperience with credit products, and a lack of credit histories. These entrepreneurs fall within our target population of the “digital information poor” that represent low-income households and are often located in hard-to physically serve areas of the country. 

Under FiFund, Omnis will identify promising youth entrepreneurs who can receive below-market loans. These are entrepreneurs who would otherwise not be able to access a loan through a traditional FSP. The platform will support the collection of basic identification data, and information on the entrepreneur’s business, and business plan, and start developing a credit history for the entrepreneur based on the entrepreneur’s loan performance. The platform will automate the inputs of basic data while these individuals interact with FSPs, which will reduce manual entries, potential errors, and fraud, and provide real-time information updates to enable more accurate risk assessment, compliance, and decision-making for underwriting financial products. 

The benefit of addressing these needs for our target population will be providing them with a digital platform that would be accessible to them and that gives them a secure manner in which to store, carry, and control access to their information, thus providing them with greater agency and control of their data, reducing the stress and need for carrying and submitting physical documentation, and most importantly being able to share information that was previously not readily available when applying for financial products and services.

While we are piloting our solution with entrepreneurs and information relevant to entrepreneurs, as our solution expands, we will broaden our scope to financially include other underserved groups, like women and rural workers, and other types of information sources, including remittance data. This will ensure that the solution stays focused on meeting the needs of those who are truly excluded from the financial markets.

Our team, though small, is highly capable and diverse, bringing together decades of combined experience in development institutions, finance, banking, payments, remittances, and digital products. We specialize in financial inclusion within emerging markets, particularly in Latin America (LATAM). Notably, we've worked on projects like the Kiva Protocol solution in Honduras, utilizing blockchain-based digital ID technology. Additionally, we've served in different stages of our professional lives the underbanked at institutions such as the IFC, Banorte, Banco Azteca, Tengo, and Nacional Monte de Piedad.

Our track record includes successfully developing and deploying solutions like ODP and FIFund, with support from USAID. At Kiva, we piloted platform concepts with Honduran financial service providers and conducted user research to inform our designs. This iterative process has shaped our current prototype.

At Omnis, we continue to refine our approach to financial inclusion through our non-profit structure and partnerships with ecosystem stakeholders. Our focus remains on serving the underserved, informed by years of market intelligence and regional experience. While private sector ventures also target this types of digital solutions, they often prioritize more affluent consumers. In contrast, we leverage our understanding of information-sharing markets, private sector experience, and partnerships like USAID to build an inclusive ecosystem for the most vulnerable and underserved groups.

Our team comprises seasoned professionals from diverse backgrounds, including Shalini Sankaranarayanan, our CEO with extensive World Bank-IFC experience in credit information sharing; David Suarez, our CFO with decades of Latin American banking and financial inclusion expertise, and Rodrigo Garcia, our COO with a track record of implementing inclusive technology projects in Honduras. In addition, we have a local team of three to support our pilot implementation both on the front end of the business with local partners, as well as the back end for control and bookkeeping. While developing the technological aspects of our platform, we chose to work with an experienced local development solution provider, to ensure that the platform would accurately reflect the local context and needs.

In summary, we are a capable, experienced team dedicated to designing and implementing innovative solutions for financial inclusion in emerging markets, leveraging our diverse expertise and strong partnerships to make a meaningful impact on the underserved communities.

Since our inception, we've conducted market research and tested early designs of our platform with real users, including client service personnel from two microfinance institutions, one cooperative institution, and one bank in Honduras. Based on this early market testing and research, we have refined our early prototype of the Omnis Digital Platform (ODP) while at the same time worked on developing a financial inclusion fund (FIFund). We realized during our research that providing the underserved with digital identities and technology to store their financial data was going to be insufficient to give them access to financing and other financial products because FSPs lacked risk appetite or products to serve their needs. 

Once this research and development concluded, we started the implementation of our solutions. In mid 2023, we finalized the development of ODP and started testing the platform, and in January 2024, we launched the Financial Inclusion Fund (FIFund) to provide low-cost capital to microfinance lenders and other financial institutions using our platform for customer identification and evaluation. Initial funding for the Fund was provided by USAID through its Creando Mi Futuro Aqui program.  The USAID grant was formalized and communicated at the beginning of this year. 

As part of our implementation, we also signed an MOU with a leading microfinance institution in Honduras, operating nationwide, to begin implementing both FiFund and ODP. They see the value of our digital platform and funding/lending vehicle to develop new clients and are testing it with us in our initial pilot, focusing on branches that have a lot of customer traffic. We started installing ODP and lending through FiFund with our MFI partner in the February this year. The loans are being granted to entrepreneurs trained by USAID through a joint effort between the MFI and Omnis. After testing and further refinements, we'll extend the solution to similar financial institutions serving our target market, some of which have already expressed interest in working with our solutions.

One important aspect to ensure the scaling of our solutions is to find significant government partnerships. This is why we are in the process of establishing a connection to the Registro Nacional de Personas (RNP) in Honduras, which is the national ID authority of the country, to allow for the authentication of clients that are onboarded via our technology platform. Developing an interface to this registry will give us the ability to scale our ODP platform exponentially.  We've also had conversations with BCH, Honduras' Central Bank, to allow remittance beneficiaries to provide us with the historical records of their remittances recorded in Balcam (a database managed by BCH) which will facilitate populating ODP's database.

As a non-profit organization, we've made strides in generating interest in the benefits of our platform to enhance financial inclusion. After months of searching for initial funding, we successfully partnered with USAID in January 2024. However, we've observed a disparity in funding between private sector solutions, which focus on specific aspects like biometric ID or digital payments, and holistic approaches like ours, which cater to the base of the pyramid in low-income countries.

To expand our impact, particularly in Honduras and beyond, and refine our technology, we see Solve as an ideal partner to propel us forward. We anticipate Solve's support will accelerate our market entry, raise awareness about tech-driven non-profits, and foster innovative ideas that generate social value.

While we're initially leveraging existing technologies, we recognize the necessity of incorporating AI, machine learning, big data analysis, and potentially blockchain into our platform for scalable growth. Through Solve, we aim to broaden our network to include experts in these fields.

We're deeply convinced that our approach will expedite financial inclusion for those most marginalized by traditional financial services. By facilitating access to financing for entrepreneurs and leveraging alternative financial data, such as remittances, we believe we can catalyze inclusion. This belief is supported by recognition from USAID/TMS, the International Finance Corporation, the IMF, and CABEI, who acknowledge the potential of alternative data for inclusion.

In addition to this heightened awareness from relevant international players,  a recent USAID report identified Omnis Finclusion as a key partner in crafting and implementing an updated national financial inclusion strategy in Honduras, signaling our momentum and relevance in the field. We're eager to capitalize on this momentum, drive meaningful change and extend our reach to the millions of underserved individuals in the countries where private sector solutions are unavailable or only accessible to the affluent.

Our solution stands out because it takes a comprehensive approach, focusing on social impact rather than just profits, to tackle the barriers to financial inclusion. At its core, our technological platform addresses the problem of unequal access to information between lenders and borrowers. It serves as an open data platform for marginalized individuals, enabling them to digitize various aspects of their lives and use this digital information to access additional services.

Digitizing records is challenging, and many organizations avoid it, but it's crucial for creating more inclusive opportunities for those left out of the financial system. By requiring biometric approval to access data, we prioritize data and consumer privacy.

Through the Financial Inclusion Fund, we provide low-cost capital to financial service providers (FSPs) and create incentives for them to serve populations that they might otherwise overlook due to high costs. Traditional FSPs often target clients with verifiable data but end up offering high-interest, short-term loans to mitigate risks, which burdens the clients. Our Fund offers a mechanism for FSPs to participate in broader financial inclusion efforts while safeguarding their interests.

Our solution empowers underserved populations by offering them affordable alternatives to finance projects like starting a business or building a home—areas of interest for remittance recipients.

By making financial products more visible and accessible, our platform has the potential to revolutionize the market. In many emerging countries, a significant portion of the population lacks access to formal financial services. In Honduras, for instance, around 60% of the population is financially excluded, and similar percentages exist in other countries. Despite efforts, public policies haven't made a significant dent in these numbers. That's why we believe our solution could be a game-changer in global financial inclusion efforts.

By providing financial service providers (FSPs) with a) the right tools and b) access to low-cost capital, we incentivize them to reach and serve financially excluded population segments. By educating these population segments about the power of their information and their personal information rights, we empower them to make the most use of their data.

We are working to address the problem of financial exclusion caused due to a) the inability of individuals to reliably identify oneself, b) lack of information or relevant information and c) the lack of access to credit. Our target audience includes the “digital “information poor” that include micro, small and medium entrepreneurs, low-income households, women, rural communities, informal workers, migrants, refugees, displaced populations.

We aim to reach these segments through financial service providers that have a financial inclusion mandate (like microfinance institutions, cooperatives and some banks).

To bring about this change, we will provide FSPs with the tools to accurately identify this key audience and assess risks using data relevant to them and b) provide incentives such as “low-cost” capital to FSPs to serve this audience, and c)educate our target market about the power of their information and their data rights.

Some of the key metrics that we will be monitoring as we implement our solution are:

Number of FSPs using our solution

Number of “new-to-credit” clients reached (from target market)

Number of clients that obtain a credit history (based on alternative information)

Number of loans given out to “new-to-credit” clients

The overall goal is that by improving access to credit for our target market, we can enable greater economic opportunity and job creation, the accumulation of assets and reduced incentives to migrate.

Our platform aims to tackle barriers preventing FSPs from serving the unbanked and underbanked. We believe that by equipping FSPs with the right tools, information and funding, they can make better decisions, reduce risks, and become more willing to serve these segments. This, in turn, can lead to increased access to financial products and services, fostering investments in local entrepreneurship, small businesses, job creation, and economic opportunities. Ultimately, we hope to reduce the incentive for target populations to migrate in search of opportunities abroad.

While our ODP and FiFund address part of the challenge, meaningful change requires collaboration with various stakeholders, potentially through a consortium. This includes partnering with organizations specializing in financial literacy and education, as well as public sector partners who can facilitate the platform's implementation on a larger scale. Financial literacy efforts will focus on topics like safeguarding information, data privacy rights, the benefits of sharing information, and responsible borrowing.

We'll monitor several impact metrics as we implement ODP and FiFund, including:

1) The number of loans granted to entrepreneurs through FiFund

2) FSPs using alternative information to provide loans to the underserved.

3) The number of individuals, particularly women, entrepreneurs, and rural communities accessing financial services.

4) The establishment, sustainability, and growth of micro and small businesses, particularly those owned by women.

5) The financial education of unbanked individuals by our partners.

6) Increased economic opportunities and job creation.

7) Reduced incentives for migration due to greater financial inclusion.

In our pilot phase with our partner MFI, our goal is to reach 850 entrepreneurs within a year. If ODP scales successfully, we anticipate impacting over 4,000 entrepreneurs in Honduras alone over the next five years. 

We'll track key metrics during the initial deployment phase:

• Number of loans to entrepreneurs: 850

• Number of MFIs using the ODP platform: 2

• Number of branches using the platform: 6

• Number of staff at each MFI using the platform: 12

• Long term impact goals for ODP include:

• Increasing the number of individuals and entrepreneurs accessing financial services.

• Establishing and sustaining micro and small businesses, especially those owned by women. 

• Encouraging FSPs to use remittance information for loans.

• Boosting economic opportunities and job creation.

• Financially educating unbanked individuals.

• Addressing causes of migration through our solutions.

• Extending coverage to rural communities.

We'll establish specific baselines and KPIs yearly once the platform is operational in each target country.

We've developed ODP v1.0 using a variety of technologies, including VueJS, Node.JS, CSS, HTML, and non-relational databases like Firebase or MongoDB. Additionally, we utilize Google Cloud Platform to host Cloud Functions API and offer hosting options through Firebase, AWS, or Vercel for the front end.

Currently, our platform comprises several key modules:

1. Customer Registry Creation: Allows for the creation and management of customer profiles.
2. eKYC Query: Facilitates electronic Know Your Customer checks for identity verification.
3. Financial History Query: Enables access to financial history data.
4. User Admin: Manages user accounts and permissions within the system.
5. Reports: Provides reporting capabilities for data analysis and insights.

Our ODP connects to Financial Service Providers' (FSPs) core systems and financial history data sources via APIs. It includes an internal customer registry and financial history repository to store manual transactions, including those supported by paper receipts. Moreover, ODP integrates with national identity authorities for digital identity validation.

The front end of our platform operates via an online portal accessible to micro-finance institutions' personnel from their workstations.

Looking ahead, our roadmap includes several future functions and services such as a mobile application for customer interaction, providing tools for FSP personnel to capture customer data, documents and location data more easily, a customer portal for self-inputting of data such as GPS location, pictures, documents, a financial services marketplace for customers, to name a few.

These future developments aim to enhance the functionality and utility of our ODP platform, catering to the evolving needs of both financial institutions and customers in the digital landscape.

Full time: 

1. Shalini Sankaranarayanan, CEO

2. David Suarez, CFO 

3. Rodrigo Garcia, COO

4. Development team (3 - contract) 

•  Atahualpa Erazo, Stefan Acosta, Andres Meza

5. Honduras Program Team ( 2 full time, 1 part-time)

• Omar Vasquez, Delmer Cerrato, Hernan Hernandez

2.5 years (1.5 years at Omnis Finclusion Foundation, and one year at Kiva Microfunds)

Omnis has developed a diversity, equity and inclusion policy which states that we are committed to encouraging equality, diversity and inclusion among our workforce, and eliminating unlawful discrimination so that our workforce is representative of all sections of society.  Each collaborator will be respected in a work environment that encourages collaboration, respect, tolerance and belonging. Our policy is extensive to collaborators, clients, suppliers and all stakeholders.     

The other two members are of Hispanic/Latin American descent, all three living in developing countries of middle to lower income levels. Our local operation in Honduras employs local personnel.

Additionally, our target population is marginalized individuals, especially women, in poor countries that have no access to financial products and are therefore excluded from having opportunities for development. By definition, this target segment is largely comprised of women and they traditionally work in the informal segment, which can be up to 70% of total economic activity in many of these countries.  

Omnis is committed to continue being a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization through time. Our future hiring of team members will reflect this conviction, and all the products and solutions that we develop in the future will be designed with diversity and inclusion at their core inception.

Omnis aims to address the challenge of financial exclusion by providing a comprehensive solution for financial service providers (FSPs) to assess the creditworthiness of unbanked individuals. Our platform collects necessary data to verify identities and evaluate risks, while also offering initial loans with risk-sharing mechanisms to reduce repayment risk.

Our model is centered on enabling financial inclusion and has specific benefits for different stakeholders:

For Customers:

• Control over their data
• Establishment of financial history
• Access to affordable financing
• Inclusion in financial services

For FSPs and Microfinance Institutions (MFIs):

• Streamlined KYC (Know Your Customer) and compliance processes
• Access to technology for efficient operations
• Enhanced risk management capabilities
• Expansion into new market segments and client bases
• Increased business volumes

For Governments:

• Job creation and income generation
• Fostering competitive markets
• Advancing financial inclusion goals

To sustain our operations and fulfill our mission, we rely on scaling up user adoption of our platform. FSPs pay for platform usage based on the volume and size of queries they make. We strive to set fair prices to attract users while also considering incentives to encourage participation.

Our primary revenue streams come from charging FSPs for platform usage, with rates varying based on query type and user size. We also generate revenue from the financial margins earned on loans provided through FiFund.

Currently, our revenue model is in the development and testing phase. In the interim, we rely on funding from founders and grants. As we progress, we plan to diversify revenue streams by offering additional services through the Omnis Digital Platform and managing the Financial Inclusion Fund.

On the expense side, our main costs include personnel expenses for operations, technology development with our vendor, fundraising, and marketing efforts.

Overall, Omnis is committed to facilitating financial inclusion by providing accessible, sustainable, and impactful solutions for all stakeholders involved.

Initially, our work is funded by contributions from the founders of Omnis. The first version of ODP was entirely financed by Omnis' founders. Additionally, the launch of FIFund receives partial funding from USAID, alongside additional contributions from our founders. The ODP team actively seeks funding through donations and grants from various organizations. Recently, Omnis secured US$150,000 from USAID to initiate the “Gran Paso para Iniciar tu Negocio” program. This program utilizes ODP's capabilities and USAID's financial support to fund startup entrepreneurs trained by USAID for their business ventures.

For the first two years, our financial projections rely primarily on contributions and grants. As our revenue model gains momentum, fees collected from platform queries and margins from lending activities in FIFund will gradually lead us to break even by the third year of operation.

In the short term, founders' contributions amount to US$17,500 from Shalini Sankaranarayanan, David Suarez, and Rodrigo Garcia, along with funding of US$150,000 from DAI USAID Creando Tu Futuro for FIFund.

Looking into the medium term (2024-2025), we anticipate funding needs of US$2.2 million for IT and operational expenses. Of this, US$1.7 million will come from founders and grants, while operational revenues are projected to contribute US$500,000.