DFS Lab - Narrowing the gender gap in financial inclusion

The F3 Prize recognizes the most innovative digital financial products that are narrowing the gender gap in financial inclusion.

We launched the Female-Focused Fintech Prize, sponsored by Flourish Ventures, to find and reward the companies working to narrow the gender gap in access to digital financial services by building products and services designed for women.

Meet the F3 Prize Nominees

Kaleidofin: F3 Prize Winner

Kaleidofin is a neo-bank fintech platform that propels underbanked customers towards their real life goals by providing intuitive and tailored financial solutions. Each financial solution is delivered via an easy to use mobile app. They use machine learning algorithms to curate the right set of financial products, transform this into a solution personalized to each customers’ unique needs and characteristics, helping them to improve their relationship with their finances, create better financial behaviors, and achieve their life’s goals. Over 90% of their customers are women.

*Sucharita Mukherjee and Puneet Gupta, co-founders of Kaleidofin, accept DFS Lab’s Female-Focused Fintech (F3) Prize Award at the FT/IFC Transformational Business Awards in London, June 13, 2019*

Pezesha: Runner Up

Pezesha is a digital financial marketplace empowering the underserved in Africa. They connect quality low income MSMEs and consumers – majority being women – with financial education, credit scores and affordable financial services on their marketplace. Beyond their digital cross platforms, they also partner with agents and trusted existing networks who are embedded in their value chain to drive long term customer relationship, retention and quality on-boarding that translates to high repayments.

*Hilda Moraa, founder of Pezesha, at the FT/IFC Transformational Business Awards, June 2019.*

Mama Prime: Runner Up

Mama Prime is a fintech company enabling mothers to prepay in flexible installments via M-PESA for their prenatal, delivery, and postnatal care. Mothers can now effectively plan and pre-pay for their delivery. It gives them access to more hospitals and services that were previously not in their price-range as they considered them too costly. Uninsured mothers now also have access to emergency loans specific for delivery. This ensures both they, and the baby are healthy and the financial burden has been spread out into manageable payments that they can pay over time.

Female-Focused Fintech Prize

#F3Prize

F3 Prize Background

We partnered with Flourish Ventures and FinEquity, housed at CGAP, to find startups that were building products and services designed for women as a way to help narrow the gender gap in access to digital financial services. We worked with an independent advisory board built up of leaders in women’s financial inclusion and gender to develop judging criteria and to evaluate the applicants.

Our aim with this prize was to bring support and an investor spotlight to the most innovative entrepreneurs and products that increase financial access to female users in emerging markets. Winners receive structured mentorship from DFS Lab, its network of experts, and members of the F3 Prize’s advisory committee. They were honored in person at the FT/IFC Transformative Business Awards 2019.

We looked for startups that:

Serve a primarily female customer base
Target the mass market in Africa and South Asia (including Indonesia).
Have made gender inclusion a priority, both in their business models and their company culture
Offer products and services that address the gender gap in financial inclusion through increased access to financial services for women and/or a deeper impact on the daily financial lives of women and their families
Can demonstrate the above with qualitative and quantitative data and prove the ability to scale that impact

F3 Prize Advisory Committee

	
	
		  
			
						 
					 
						
							
								
								
									
																			
									
																														
 									
								
							
							
								Elizabeth Kellison
								Gender Lead, Financial Services for the Poor at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
							
						
					
					  
													 
					 
						
							
								
								
									
																			
									
																														
 									
								
							
							
								Amee Parbhoo
								Director of Investments at Accion Venture Lab
							
						
					
					  
													 
					 
						
							
								
								
									
																			
									
																														
 									
								
							
							
								Dr. Savita Bailur
								Research Director at Caribou Digital
							
						
					
					  
											
						
														 
					 
						
							
								
								
									
																			
									
																														
 									
								
							
							
								Marina Dimova
								Managing Director, Design and Innovation, Women's World Banking
							
						
					
					  
													 
					 
						
							
								
								
									
																			
									
																														
 									
								
							
							
								Catherine Highet
								FinEquity - Technology Lead, at CGAP
							
						
					
					  
													 
					 
						
							
								
								
									
																			
									
																														
 									
								
							
							
								Jenny Johnston
								VC / Impact Investor at Flourish
							
						
					
					  
											
						
														 
					 
						
							
								
								
									
																			
									
																														
 									
								
							
							
								Mónica Black
								Partner at TheVentureCity, Former Principal Ventures at CZI
							
						
					
					  
													 
					 
						
							
								
								
									
																			
									
																														
 									
								
							
							
								Olga Morawczynski
								Senior Program Manager at the Mastercard Foundation
							
						
					
					  
													 
					 
						
							
								
								
									
																			
									
																														
 									
								
							
							
								Gayatri Murthy
								Financial Sector Specialist at CGAP