InVenture raises $1.2-million to help serve emerging markets’ underbanked

InVenture is a credit score for anyone with a mobile phone. In order to expand its phone-based personal finance software, InSight, which generates financial identities and credit scores for the underbanked in South Asia and Africa, the startup has recently raised US$1.2-million.

According to the startup, there are an estimated 4.5-billion people without formal credit scores in the world. In order to help this underbanked market, InVenture is aiming to meet the demand of the majority of people based in South Africa, Kenya and India by implementing its innovative personal financial aid technology.

This is done by implementing the company’s InSight software, which gives users the tools needed to aid, track and better understand their finances. This in turn legally extends mobile subscriber identity with cash flow management and performance analytics in order to create financial identities for individuals and small businesses.

InSight provides users with accounting services that build credit scores for them either via SMS, IVP or Android. The aim of this mobile software is for anyone to be able to manage their finances, increase savings, and ultimately validate their financial worth.

In this video below, InVenture CEO and Founder Shivani Siroya explains the inspiration behind this startup. She explains how she saw an underserved gap in the market where micro-entrepreneurs were stuck and financially excluded from being able to grow their own businesses and provide jobs.

Not only does this system allow it to reach more people, InVenture believes that such mobile streaming data is more reliable as it relies on the user’s current financial situation instead of repayment history.

InVenture has also added frictionless methods to augmenting users’ financial information with public and shared records. For instance, the company’s Kenyan Android users have shared over 10,000 mobile money receipts with InVenture which could be used to give a fuller picture of their financial capabilities.

The majority of this recent seed investment comes from Lowercase Capital and also includes Google Ventures, Mumbai Angels, Collaborative Fund, and Mesa+.

Apart from the recent cash injection, the company has also formed significant partnerships with the likes of African mobile transaction service provider Pattern Matched Technologies, mobile app developer Every1Mobile and financial institutions such as India’s MicroPension, Hand in Hand and EKO.