Problem
Small female entrepreneurs face difficulty accessing adequate credit to invest and grow, while financial institutions and capital providers face high costs to analyze, grant, and monitor small value transactions. The result is a paradox: there is demand for capital and there are resources available, but connecting them in an efficient, sustainable and measurable way is still difficult. In addition, granting credit without guidance and without monitoring its use does not guarantee business development. EmpowerFi solves this inefficiency by creating an infrastructure that combines credit intelligence, optimization of capital sources, monitoring automation, and financial education, seeking to reduce the cost of the operation and transform credit into sustainable growth and measurable economic impact.
Solution
EmpowerFi proposes an intelligent infrastructure for productive credit that connects female entrepreneurs to different sources of capital and identifies the most efficient route for each operation. The platform uses business data to support credit analysis, automates origination, orientation, and monitoring steps, and monitors the use and payment of capital. Instead of just granting credit, we followed your journey to understand whether the resource generated sustainable growth. For capital providers, we seek to reduce operating costs, improve risk assessment, and provide return and impact metrics. For the entrepreneur, the objective is to expand access to adequate capital, combined with the education and financial guidance necessary to use it productively.
Business model
EmpowerFi operates on a B2B infrastructure model for productive credit. Revenue combines transaction fees on credit operations, collection for the use of intelligence and servicing infrastructure, and contracts with companies, funds, and institutions for credit programs and impact measurement. At the beginning, we estimated credit tickets between R$1 A thousand and R$5 thousand per entrepreneur, evolving according to risk and payment capacity data. For B2B clients, we designed initial contracts between R$30 A thousand and R$100 thousand per program/cohort, in addition to transactional revenues. With scale, the model evolves to recurring and usage-based contracts, allowing revenue growth proportional to the volume of capital processed, without equivalent growth in the operating structure.
Market
EmpowerFi operates in the global credit infrastructure market for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging economies. According to IFC/G20, the funding gap for MSMEs in these markets is estimated at US$ 5,7 trillions. Businesses led by women represent around 34% of this deficit, equivalent to approximately US$ 1,9 trillion. EmpowerFi begins its operations in Brazil, with an expected expansion to Latin America and, later, other emerging markets in Asia and Africa, using a replicable infrastructure for credit intelligence, capital optimization and business monitoring.
Competitors
Crediamigo, Zippi, BizCapital, Nexoos and QI Tech
Competitive differentiation
While banks, fintechs, and microcredit platforms normally offer a specific credit source or product, EmpowerFi was born as an independent layer of intelligence and infrastructure. Our differential is to compare different sources of capital and financial routes to seek the most efficient alternative for each operation, combining risk analysis with business data, financial education and continuous monitoring of the entrepreneur. In addition to measuring default and financial return, we seek to measure the economic result produced by capital in the business. This makes it possible to align the interests of the entrepreneur and the capital provider: more sustainable credit for those who receive and more efficient, measurable and scalable operations for those who finance.
Entry barrier
EmpowerFi's main barrier to entry is the progressive construction of a proprietary database that connects management behavior, credit risk, cost of operation, and economic result generated by capital. With each operation, the platform learns not only who pays, but which profiles, credit purposes, sources of capital, and forms of monitoring produce the best results. This data feeds our decision engine and makes the credit recommendation progressively more accurate. Added to this are integrations with capital providers, regulated partners, and entrepreneurial communities. The larger the network and the history of operations, the greater the accumulated intelligence and the more difficult it becomes to replicate the model just by developing a similar technology.
Traction
Yes, the app is available on the Play Store. Right now, Android only. The iOS version is under review by the Apple Store. 18 Entrepreneurs and 5 customers.