PasanaQ unlocks the financial potential of the unbanked and underbanked people in Latin America through the digitization of informal savings clubs (ROSCA).
Current Status
- We launched a fully operational app on Android and iOS in September 2022 for the B2C market. To date, we have 5,600 users registered on our platform and 1,500 MAU. We also launched a WhatsApp version of our platform in January 2023. We registered 3,300 users since then for the WhatsApp MVP.
- For the B2B market, we have a fully developed an adaptive central platform that we personalize to every customer's needs to sell it as SaaS. We have 3 paying users: the largest bank in Bolivia, second largest bank in Colombia, and a retailer selling EVs in 4 countries in LatAm.
Problem or Opportunity
70% of Latin America’s population remains unbanked or underbanked (Cornell University, 2021). Latin America is the most profitable region for banking with a 14% ROE (McKinsey, 2019). Therefore, banks have limited incentive in acquiring low-income customers and are often slow to innovate. Microloans providers are more like shark loan providers, charging from 40% to 200% interest rate, and only 30% of people have access to credit.
Solution (product or service)
We aim to bring financial inclusion through the digitization of ROSCA, a practice common in Latin America and used by 20% of the population. Only in Latin America, $150 billion are moved on ROSCA every year. Latin Americans spend up to 20% of their monthly income on ROSCA and because ROSCA is informal, this money movement never reaches the financial system. Our platform digitizes ROSCA, increases trust amongst ROSCA users and connects them with buy-now-pay-later schemes, insurance, and microloans through credit scoring based on ROSCA transactions.
Business model
- On B2B we integrate our platform to a bank/retailers’ platform so they can offer ROSCA or BNPL schemes to their users. We charge an initial integration fee ($5,000) and a monthly fee ($1,000).
- On B2C we are piloting a ROSCA insurance model in which we take a 3% fee of ROSCA payments. We have 600 people on 2 weeks on a waiting list for this program.
- On B2C we connect users with retailers for BNPL schemes and charge retailers a fee 2% on every sale.
- We hope to develop an internal alternative credit score for ROSCA users and offer them microloans based on this score.
Incubation/Acceleration programs accomplishment
- Solydes Accelerator. Solydes is the largest accelerator in Bolivia. They will invest in our next round.
- McKinsey Fuel. Fuel is a free equity accelerator. We are in their fourth Mexico City Cohort.
- Impaqto. Impaqto is a free equity social accelerator program from Ecuador. We will be starting Impaqto this April.
