Perspectives

Millions of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and struggle to get out of a debt cycle. One startup is developing financial products targeted toward this segment of the population, with the goal of helping them build credit, save money, access funds and plan for the future.

Saving and building credit are two of the most difficult challenges for a majority of Americans. In fact, statistics show that 69 percent of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings, while 61 percent ran out of emergency savings by the end of last year.

Venture capitalists will care more about supporting startups with a financial inclusion mandate next year, says Emmalyn Shaw, managing partner, Flourish Ventures. Click here to listen to the podcast

Fintech will shift from products to audiences, and mortgage, core banking and insurance will expedite digitization. As a managing partner at Flourish Ventures, a $500 million global venture fund that was launched in 2019 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, Emmalyn Shaw is an experienced tech investor.

Emmalyn Shaw at Flourish Ventures provides us with a personal take on how women can make an impact in fintech investing. When I co-founded Flourish Ventures, focusing solely on fintech was relatively new to me. I had more than 20 years of experience working with entrepreneurs in the technology industry, but it was the desire to have an impact, to invest in companies that were both mission-driven and commercial, that led me to fintech and to Flourish.

Nearly two decades before Zuben Mathews co-founded a consumer fintech app, he was studying economics at the University of Chicago as a recent immigrant to the U.S. Despite earning a scholarship and regular allowances from his mother in India, Mathews found himself without a credit score, living paycheck-to-paycheck. He says he spent $1,000 on overdraft fees alone that first year.