A company to look back and think that life has been worthwhile

A Google search linked Alexa Varsavsky and Isabel Oriol, both 31 years old. One was born in New York and the other in Madrid. “After seven years in the technology sector, I spent months reflecting. I thought about where, when I was 80 years old, I would have liked to put my grain of sand for a better world. And I came to the conclusion that I wish I had opened up opportunities for the women of the next generation.” The pandemic and a growing disinterest in her work brought Varsavsky back to the Spanish capital, where she had spent her childhood. Another "inner and slow" journey made him aware of gender inequality. "I felt lucky for my life, but I saw things like when you were 12 years old they told you to be careful about wearing a skirt or that they paid you less for the same work that a man does," she continues. That is why, one day in the summer of 2020, she typed: “social impact of Madrid companies”. And she found Oriol. The Madrid woman had been working with her husband for five years at MiCrowd, a microcredit financial product for women in Latin America.

In January 2021, a few months after exchanging the first emails and meeting each other, both launched ADA Impacto, a technology company "to capture, track and retain customers of financial institutions." But with the focus on small Latin American entrepreneurs, most without a bank account, but who access loans to carry out their businesses. Her idea has been awarded by Women's World Banking.

“It is a fallacy that they only need help or training. What they need are funds for their businesses”, says Oriol. The Madrid woman refers to women who have a food stall, who sell cosmetics by catalog or do home manicures in developing countries. Oriol recalls that on her first trip to Nicaragua to meet with some local MiCrowd partners, she came across Pastorcita Vegetable Store in a market. “They had everything neat and beautiful. And the vendors wore T-shirts with their logo.” Although he was unaware of it at the time, those women had improved their stall thanks to a loan from his company. “They have ambition and desire to prosper. My greatest learning was that you shouldn't feel sorry for them, but do business with them”, he says. The second lesson was that technology can offer opportunities. “People in many countries don't have banks, but they do have a cell phone,” she explains.

According to a study by Women's World Banking, of the 1.7 billion people on the planet who continue to be unbanked, the majority - some one billion - are women. "In Mexico, more than half of the population is financially excluded or does not have access to a bank account, and women face excessive barriers," the authors note. The 6.3 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in that country generate almost half of the GDP and employ 37% of the labor force. Of these, 94.2% are micro-enterprises, and more than half are owned or run by women. Despite the dominance of this segment in the economy, most transactions are still done in cash. By contrast, 75.1% of the population has a mobile phone, says the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT).

In this salad of data, Varsavsky and Oriol saw the opportunity to create a technological product that would make it easier for women -because they are the most discriminated against in access to funds- to manage their credits. And they began by offering it in Mexico, where two financial institutions were interested in their idea, in such a way that when they make a loan they offer their clients the ADA Impacto management tool. Some 2,000 users already use their mobile application and they calculate that there will be 5,000 by the end of the year. “With the smartphone they can request, receive and return the credits”, sums up Varsavsky. The next step is for all of this to happen on WhatsApp, move on.

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The creators of ADA Impacto thought that, in addition to managing their credits, the entrepreneurs would demand information and financial advice. That's why they hired five digital mentors. They are the accompaniment that the users need, the ones that solve their doubts and guide them to achieve their business goals. "We train them to use digital platforms with which they manage hundreds of conversations on WhatsApp," explains Oriol. “For all of us, we are the first formal job they have and they know that they will have income every month. Three of them even had to open an account to be able to collect their payroll”, details the Madrid woman. "And they work from home, which is fundamental for them, who are the ones who take care of the children at home," says Varsavsky.

The artificial intelligence learns from the conversations that the mentors have with the users. The goal is for the bot to carry out 90% of the advisory work, making it easier for a single mentor to manage 5,000 borrowers. Something that, according to the business projections of the creators of ADA Impacto, they are going to need. If you consolidate the nine pilot tests with new clients, your audience could grow to 300,000 people very quickly.

The data they collect from their users and the interactions with the mentors are revealing. "Women who have our support are 20% less late in repaying loans," says Oriol. "And in the end they pay less interest because they pay on time." With a degree in business, Oriol maintains that "the most efficient way to see women progress is through microcredit for their businesses." She says it from the experience of having worked in the FAO, the UN food agency, and in the Corporate Social Responsibility department of a large company, in both cases in Latin America. “I wanted to be a participant in ending extreme poverty”, she explains her trajectory.

ADA Impacto is already profitable. They went on the market in May 2021 and will end the year with 40,000 euros in revenue. The Women's World Banking award recognizing their innovation will bring them prestige and a network of contacts in the sector that they are already beginning to explore. "My dream would be to see that we accompany this sector of the population from informality to financial formality," reveals Oriol. For her part, Varsavsky wants that "thanks to digitization, the world opens up to women: that they don't have to beg for a service, but that they have the power to choose and buy." It is when they travel to Mexico and meet the users personally that those dreams come true. "We know that everything makes sense and that we are on the right track," says the New Yorker. "We have the best job," says her partner.

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