A big part of my motivation to start our fund was to support bold ideas of how to provide access to capital and financial services to those unbanked or underbanked through alternative digital credit scoring and underwriting. I can’t think of another company that fulfills this mission as directly as Pngme.
When initially doing diligence and seeing that the average interest on loans from micro finance institutions to small business owners in East Africa was in the high double digits, sometimes going as high as 200%, it was clear that a huge market opportunity exists. Even with high default rates, one could profitably underwrite at much lower than the market rate. I learned that one of the major reasons these markets haven’t become more competitive is a lack of good credit data. Without knowing anything meaningful about their customers, microfinance institutions were pricing in a huge risk premium, rendering loans usurious to those that take them and inaccessible to entrepreneurs with solid fundamentals that need a reasonable interest rate to have a shot at building their business. I saw how Pngme could create a strong digital credit score, arguably more accurate than FICO, simply with access to the mobile data of their users. As the network grew, that data would be augmented by valuable financial data. It was clear to me that this company would be a winner.
Pngme solves the challenging and expensive problem of underwriting a loan in emerging markets. Without accessible or open banking APIs, the process of collecting siloed, mobile-based income information, account balances, and credit records is burdensome for both the lender and the borrower. This problem financially constrains 1.7 billion individuals and businesses who are unable to access capital in order to scale and grow financially.
Pngme’s solution is a lending platform that captures and analyzes millions of data points from smartphones so lenders can underwrite loans in emerging markets.
I’m lucky enough to have known Cate Rung and Brendan Playford from before Pngme. I got to see how Pngme transformed from just an idea to use blockchain to build a marketplace for access to credit from those at the bottom of the financial period to the full-fledged company it is today with users, revenue, and a state-of-the-art product. I feel lucky to have been shown the idea early on as I’ve never been more sure about a team and idea that I wanted to back.
Pre-Seed Round Closed
Congratulations to the Pngme team on closing their pre-seed round in September that was led by Unshackled Ventures. Consensys Ventures also participated in the round through their Coven platform as co-investor. With investment, having booked over six figures in revenue for the year, and many more enterprise customers in the pipeline, I’m excited they’re able to continue to both improve their product as well as onboard many of the 1.7 billion individuals and businesses that are financially constrained.
Pngcoin Token
There has been no public or private sale of the Pngcoin token, instead users can acquire Pngcoin through incentives that are structured to promote adoption and responsible credit behavior on the Pngme platform. In addition to this, holders of the Pngme token will be entitled to discounted fees when using the platform and be able to redeem Pngcoin for services much like credit card or airline points. For those looking to use the platform, the Pngcoin token is being listed on Idex on Monday, November 24th — available for non-US purchasers.
Learn More
Podcast with Zach and Brendan — we dive into the mission of Pngme, the use of the Pngcoin token, the philosophy behind the Pngcoin token distribution. The technical decisions for building on Ethereum and the vision for the long-term governance and blockchain infrastructure of Pngcoin are also covered.