Port It Global Inc, a mobile phone data-driven financial platform providing behavioral scoring and pay-over-time services to the unbanked at the point of sale (PoS), has closed a Seed round of funding led by Energy Access Ventures (EAV) to drive market expansion in Africa and South America and to hire more talent, while preparing for its Series A round with the support of EAV.
Over 360 million people and 90% of Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remain unbanked and are excluded from basic financial services. However, Africa’s digital revolution is driving positive change in the financial ecosystem. Rising mobile phone penetration and the prevalence of mobile payments are opening up significant opportunities. Port It, using its Business-to-Business-to-Consumer (B2B2C) model, enables credit poor individuals to build a repayment history and to gain access to low-margin, short-term POS installment management. End customers can now pay for a variety of aspirational goods, such as solar home systems, households electronics, appliances, FMCG, etc, in installments, without anything other than their mobile phone and digital footprint. With Port It, retailers can sell more and end users can more readily afford items by paying over time.
“Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) want to be able to sell to the unbanked population the products needed to improve their quality of life,” said Andrew Kossowski, CEO and Co-Founder of Port It Global. “Today, unbanked consumers can only afford to purchase these products by using a pay-over-time service; an infrastructure that SMBs don’t readily have. Port It allows SMBs, in less than 2 minutes, to offer their products with easy installments, from any location and on any device. This makes Port It a leader of Financial Inclusion for Everyone in Emerging Markets.”
Michael Gera, co-founder and Managing Partner at EAV commented, “A key missing pillar to development in Africa has been financial services. We are delighted to be working with Port It and look forward to bringing to bear our extensive experience, deep networks and on-the-ground presence in Africa. We look forward to helping them to develop strong partnerships and drive effective execution across the continent.”
Over 360 million people and 90% of Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remain unbanked and are excluded from basic financial services. However, Africa’s digital revolution is driving positive change in the financial ecosystem. Rising mobile phone penetration and the prevalence of mobile payments are opening up significant opportunities. Port It, using its Business-to-Business-to-Consumer (B2B2C) model, enables credit poor individuals to build a repayment history and to gain access to low-margin, short-term POS installment management. End customers can now pay for a variety of aspirational goods, such as solar home systems, households electronics, appliances, FMCG, etc, in installments, without anything other than their mobile phone and digital footprint. With Port It, retailers can sell more and end users can more readily afford items by paying over time.
“Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) want to be able to sell to the unbanked population the products needed to improve their quality of life,” said Andrew Kossowski, CEO and Co-Founder of Port It Global. “Today, unbanked consumers can only afford to purchase these products by using a pay-over-time service; an infrastructure that SMBs don’t readily have. Port It allows SMBs, in less than 2 minutes, to offer their products with easy installments, from any location and on any device. This makes Port It a leader of Financial Inclusion for Everyone in Emerging Markets.”
Michael Gera, co-founder and Managing Partner at EAV commented, “A key missing pillar to development in Africa has been financial services. We are delighted to be working with Port It and look forward to bringing to bear our extensive experience, deep networks and on-the-ground presence in Africa. We look forward to helping them to develop strong partnerships and drive effective execution across the continent.”