💵 Money Matters in March 💵

Dear Dennis,

I don’t think anybody in this world, individual or institution, would disagree that managing money is the most tedious task. It’s important to have a clear path towards financial wellness, especially if you want to thrive rather than just survive in this world.

As a VC with a presence across emerging markets in the Global South (India, Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia), we’ve seen first-hand how critical the need for financial wellness solutions for individuals is. 

When conducting market research to invest in two deals which we announced last month, we found case studies that made us realize how big this opportunity is.

Hafizur Rahman, a worker in a Bangladeshi RMG factory, struggled to repay a loan he had taken the previous month to meet his gas and electricity expenses. He then learned about wagely, which offers an affordable, reliable, and transparent financial solution that helps workers like him cover day-to-day living expenses and emergencies without resorting to high-interest loans. Now, Hafizur can withdraw his salary before payday and meet his expenses.

Amaka, a market woman operating in the Mushin market in Lagos, had taken several loans from lenders and defaulted on all of them. That’s when she discovered BFREE. Thanks to BFREE’s assistance, she was able to negotiate a manageable repayment plan with her lender. Today, Amaka is debt-free and back on track towards achieving her financial and personal goals.

These stories, from Bangladesh to Lagos, underscore a vital truth: financial inclusion and wellness aren't just about access; it's about fostering trust, empowering individuals, and turning hope into tangible progress, one tap, one message, one life at a time.

Portfolio Power

A few weeks ago, we announced our recent investments in BFREE, Africa’s ethical credit manager, which is leveraging AI to transform the credit collection process across emerging markets, and in wagely, Asia’s leading financial well-being platform offering workers access to a portion of their earned wages before their monthly payday. 

Read more details about our investment in BFREE announcement here and wagely here.

Founder's Corner

It’s no secret that startup founders are a rare breed. But a couple of our founders have quite a few things up their sleeve. Pravin Agarwala, Co-founder and Group CEO of BetterPlace, is harboring a now-not-so-secret dream of acquiring SAP, and Emmanuel Okeleji, CEO of SeamlessHR, was actually a kidney transplant surgeon before jumping into the world of entrepreneurship. 

We are excited to introduce our new video series - Founder on Founder - where our portfolio founders from across the globe share their achievements, challenges, and the secret behind building successful ventures.

In the first episode, Pravin and Emmanuel share their life stories with us.

GenAI Showcase

What if we told you that GenAI has the potential to give a $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion boost to the Indian economy within seven years. How? By supercharging frontline worker efficiency.  

Ved Antani, Chief Product & Technology Officer at BetterPlace, believes that despite being the largest workforce representation globally, frontline workers haven’t largely benefited from the changes in technologies to improve their lives. GenAI can be used for all workforce management functions, from auto-generating customized skilling content based on worker performance to automating query redressal for workers who are out in the field.

Partner Insights

Unless you've been living under a rock, you would know about the crisis in Indian edtech.

Once the poster boy of Indian edtech, BYJU’S is now struggling to pay operational costs, trying to raise money at valuations in the millions, fighting insolvency cases, and perhaps waiting for the last knock. But does this mark the end of edtech? Absolutely not, especially in India's vast education market. 

Our Managing Partner, Surya Mantha, believes that edtech companies shaping India’s tomorrow must exercise self-restraint to focus on learning, not pushy marketing, and –  above all –  learn from the mistakes of those who came before them.

Inside Capria-verse

Remember Jules Verne’s classic "Around the World in 80 Days"? At times, we feel our Managing Partners tour the world faster than that. 

March has been a whirlwind month for our Managing Partner, Susana Garcia-Robles, who visited the UAE, Colombia and Mexico City, speaking at different panels on the transformative power of GenAI (Bogota), and ‘Unraveling the Tapestry of Venture Capital in Latin America and the Caribbean’ (Mexico City). 

You can view highlights of her trip to Mexico here.

If you’re a tech founder in the Global South with a solution to solve a problem at scale, you can reach out to us through our website.

Thank you for reading.

Please feel free to write to us with your feedback, suggestions, or any other information.

Cheers,
Marketing Mavericks at Capria