Commenting on the success of their journey so far, Datacultr Co-founder, Neel Juriasingani explains “Built on strong market insights by an agile team, we have developed a comprehensive and localized tech platform now live in 9 countries with over 600,000 loans secured on the platform to date.” He further added, “Datacultr is delivering outstanding results on key metrics like payment defaults, NPLs and collection efficiency and the response from our customers has been overwhelming.”
”Datacultr is solving a key problem that affects the lives of millions of people in emerging markets that have no access to financial services due to lack of reliable data. It is very easy to lend money, however it is much more challenging to get it back, especially from first time borrowers. Through sophisticated techniques based on behavioural change principles, Datacultr educates these individuals and has a meaningful impact on their future by bringing them into the formal financial sector. We believe that Datacultr has a truly global, scalable product that can be implemented across emerging markets for the benefit of millions of people”, said Robin Butler, Investment Director at Sturgeon Capital.
“With its experienced team, Datacultr is not only opening up a $200bn market opportunity for financial institutions in emerging markets but is also enabling them to include those unbanked customers that have traditionally been excluded from mainstream financial services. As of Q4 2021, Datacultr achieved a 127% growth (QoQ) in the number of loans secured on its platform, amounting to over $76mn worth of active loans”, said Charlie Graham-Brown, Partner of Seedstars International.
“Datacultr immediately caught our interest as we recognized the dual opportunity offered; first in enabling underbanked populations to get access to phones thus helping them to do business and secondly to tap other sides of the financial sector like Micro-loans”, said Gregoire Baudin, founder of NP Consulting LLC.
With the newly acquired funds Datacultr aims to expand its sales team and bolster their technology team, as well as launch a new solution meant specifically for the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) segment.
About Sturgeon Capital
Sturgeon Capital is a London-based VC investing in emerging and frontier market start-ups that are solving the key problems affecting the day to day lives of businesses and individuals. We are a for profit and for impact firm that aims to create employment opportunities and support financial inclusion through investing in technological innovation. Sturgeon’s funds have invested in start-ups from across Central Asia, the Middle East, Caucasus, and Eastern Europe.
About Seedstars International
Seedstars International is an industry-agnostic venture capital fund that invests in seed stage start-ups across emerging markets that can deliver top-tier venture capital returns and enable social and economic benefits. Currently, the firm has 75 start-ups from 32 countries in its portfolio. The Fund is part of the Seedstars group, founded in 2012 in Switzerland.
About NP Consulting LLC
NP Consulting LLC is a Swiss-based company that invests mainly in early stages, anywhere in the world, with a strong fintech, proptech as well as agritech focus. To date, NP Consulting has invested in 40+ start ups from 14 countries.
About Startupbootcamp
Launched in 2014, Startupbootcamp FinTech is the leading global FinTech accelerator focused on innovation for the financial services industry. Based in London, Singapore, New York, Mexico City, Amsterdam, Cairo and Dubai, each program is supported by a network of leading financial players as well as an extensive mentor and alumni network from more than 30 countries across the globe. Startupbootcamp FinTech is part of the global award-winning Startupbootcamp, a network of industry-focused startup accelerators. For more information, visit: http://www.startupbootcamp.org
The Startupbootcamp FinTech Dubai program is supported locally by Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Visa, and Mashreq Bank.