New fintech development platform Emerging Impact has announced that it’s raised $1.5 million in a recent financing round with investors, including Coinbase Ventures, Mercy Corps Ventures, 500 Global, and others.
Founded in 2020 by Jon Lewis, Robert Greenfield, and Sandra Hart, Emerging Impact was created to send blockchain fintech products to areas in the market that have not been easily accessible through fiat and mobile money on/off ramps. Supported by recent funding, the company’s latest innovation will launch the open developer platform Umoja. Now consumers can tap into any financial service available within their peer market at a competitive rate while enjoying transaction costs 40 times cheaper than competitors and the utility of experiencing an economic system that is 1,000 times faster, according to a press release provided to AfroTech.
“We created Umoja to accelerate inclusive, digital finance through open banking, and to empower and uplift more than 2 billion people worldwide who are unable to participate in our global economy because they lack access to basic banking and financial services,” said Greenfield, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Emerging Impact, in a press release. “It’s our mission that Umoja will accelerate economic equity for millions of marginalized consumers at a time.”
Emerging Impact Wants To End The Poverty Cycle
According to a press release, the platform welcomes everyone from farmers to humanitarian aid beneficiaries who can use the applications built-in tools which include a “feature-phone compatible digital wallet, a mobile point of sale for merchants, a mass-payouts dashboard, and an API that supports on & off-ramps between stablecoins, mobile money e-float, and fiat currency.”
Users can seamlessly receive and send money, access yield accounts, and borrow money without the expense of collateral damage.
“One in three adults alive today is an informal economy worker who struggles to access adequate financial services,” said Sandra Uwantege Hart, Emerging Impact CEO of Advisory Services. “Umoja leverages the most advanced technologies to provide an alternative, and allows them to participate in the global economy for the first time.”
Emerging Impact plans to demystify decentralized finance-based wealth by advancing its platform to encourage the consumer and create opportunities to generate wealth while ending cycles of poverty.
With over 1.2 billion users worldwide transacting more than $2 billion in sales, according to GSMA, Emerging Impact understands providing the essential tools to protect and expand the wealth of its users will topple economic obstacles commonly produced by the traditional financial system.
“DeFi offers immense value and opportunity compared with products created by traditional financial services providers, and Umoja is a convenient, accessible, and elegant solution for mobile money users in the global south to participate in this positive value transformation,” said Clayton Bryan, a Partner of 500 Global.
He continued: “We’re witnessing the dawn of a new era, and Emerging Impact is a company at the vanguard, developing the next generation of financial inclusion tools and services. We’re proud of the Emerging Impact team, and this round of financing is further validation.”
Umoja Partners With CARE USA
Umoja’s platform does more than pioneer the global economy. The fintech platform also funnels relief funds to assist organizations that model financial transparency. Their mission led to Umoja’s CARE program in partnership with CARE USA to track and distribute aid vouchers to women and girls in Ecuador.
As of August 2020, the program has provided a digital trail of voucher transfer and service provision while avoiding extraneous expenditures and providing readily available access to the transfer activity from the voucher.
“Our work with Emerging Impact covers several regions where traditional finance has failed to expand wealth and economic access,” said Will Le, Partner, Innovation Celo Foundation in a press release. “Umoja is an excellent example of a solution that is built from the bottom up, and that reflects the immense wealth, potential and ingenuity that characterizes emerging markets today.”
