Today,Strive Communityannounced the inaugural grant recipients from its Innovation Fund. A total of $1 million was awarded to enterprises developing innovative, scalable solutions to strengthen small businesses’ digital capabilities.

来自全球的八位获奖者正在改变小型企业的运作方式，并在一个迅速数字化的世界中得到支持。一位收件人是使用支持物联网的自动售货机，通过减少库存量并消除一次性塑料，从而在肯尼亚增加零售商的收入。另一个是测试使用金融素养教育数据来降低风险和扩大柬埔寨的小型企业信用的生存能力，而另一位获奖者正在试用虚拟现实对巴西Favelas Upsskill企业家的效力。

Mastercard包容性增长中心总裁Shamina Singh表示：“数字技术正在迅速改变企业与客户，员工以及全球市场的互动方式。”“这些创新基金受赠人都在引入创造性解决方案，这些解决方案不仅有潜力减轻小型企业数字化的挑战，还可以解释其诺言，使他们能够成长和繁荣。”

Strive Community is a global philanthropic initiative launched by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth in partnership with Caribou Digital. The initiative is focused on strengthening the resilience of small businesses and supporting their growth. Since companies that struggle to make effective use of new technologies risk being left behind, the Innovation Fund was established to spark truly innovative solutions that will boost small businesses’ efforts to go digital.

The eight winning organisations, chosen from more than 650 applicants, are as follows:

Latin America & the Caribbean

• Flourish FI, Brazil
  Using behavioral insights, open banking data combined with tried & tested game-mechanics to drive improved financial management and financial decision-making by small business owners.
• XR Global, Brazil
  通过使学习者进入身临其境的体验来测试虚拟现实（VR）的潜力（VR）。
• Open Contracting Partnership, USA/Colombia
  创建一个市场，该市场利用有关政府合同奖励的开放数据，以无缝将小型企业与可以提供信誉的金融机构赢得合同。
• FUNDES, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia
  Connecting traditional merchants to the most appropriate digitization tools by creating a marketplace.

Asia Pacific

• ChatGenie, Philippines
  Building new features that reduce friction in the sales process for small businesses selling via social commerce. The solution also enables management of multiple social commerce channels within a single app.
• 增强资本， 柬埔寨
  Scaling up smartphone enabled loans and financial education, and jumpstarting the creation of a virtuous cycle in which businesses engaging in digital financial education are rewarded with better access to financial services.

Middle East & Africa

• Novek, Kenya
  An Internet-of-Things enabled dispensing machine for powder-based goods, to reduce stock outs, increase sales by dispensing in quantities customers can afford, and eliminate single-use packaging.
• Boost Technology Ltd, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria
  Trialling a new service that combines data analysis, behavioural science and conversational commerce to empower small retailers with insights to make them more resilient.

Over the next three years, Strive Community will collaborate across business, technology and global development sectors to advance digital, data-first solutions to support 5 million small businesses. Interventions will focus on helping these small businesses digitize their operations, make better use of financial services, and participate more effectively in digital marketplaces. Since September 2021, the initiative has launched or begun development on six programs in partnership with digital platforms, fintechs and small business support organizations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Organizations supporting small business growth can learn more about the Strive Community, funding and partnership opportunities by visitingwww.strivecommunity.org。

QUOTE SHEET

Zahid Mitha, CEO, Novek: "Small businesses are key to our success as a company. Here in Kenya they represent 70% of retail revenues. We believe that if we improve both the product they deliver to customers and their incomes, we will ultimately drive economic prosperity for everyone."

Ragde Falcis, CEO/CTO & Co-Founder, ChatGenie: “The innovation grant will definitely help our team continue to pursue initiatives and development of features that will help micro and small businesses to grow their businesses online. We will use it to launch our new product that will allow service-based merchants to accept bookings and appointments within Messenger, Instagram, Viber, GCash, and add more growth features for our merchants.”

Pedro Moura, CEO & Co-Founder, Flourish Fi: “We are excited and proud to be one of the winners of Mastercard Strive Innovation Fund. The mission-alignment between Flourish Fi and Mastercard of ‘doing well by doing good’ will foster new solutions to help small businesses and their owners drive positive money habits in Latin America.”

Boost Capital联合创始人Lucinda Revell: “Thanks to the Mastercard Strive Innovation Fund award, Boost Capital will be able to deliver financial services and education to 150,000 small businesses in Asia Pacific. We are excited that through this award, the Mastercard Strive Innovation Fund is highlighting a new generation of financial services and education solutions. Boost is so excited and honored!”

Lindsey Marchessault, Director of Data and Engagement, Open Contracting Partnership: “Small women-led businesses have been shut out of the 13 trillion dollar global procurement market for too long. To meet the challenge of building sustainable and equitable societies in the 21st century, we need to build open data-driven, participatory and smarter solutions for public procurement. This fund will be critical to develop an innovative approach that will open up opportunities for small businesses.”

Koye Oyeyinka，联合创始人兼首席运营官，Boost Technology Ltd: “Strive Community's support will allow Boost to design and test a new digital service that empowers micro and small convenience retailers with business insights. The prize will allow Boost to extend our R&D capacity and accelerate the launch of retailer-facing features to power the growth of our MSME users.”

Corentin Larue, Director, FUNDES Catalyst: “In Latin America, the long-term survival of millions of small merchants depends on their ability to adapt and embrace digitization. Digital illiteracy and asymmetry of information impede them from doing so. The Strive Innovation Fund and FUNDES’ ambition is to overcome these barriers by developing innovative digital solutions that connect merchants to the digital economy.”

Natalie Miller, Co-Founder, XR Global: “XRGlobal is ecstatic to be part of the Strive Community to not only test our current beta version of the Meta Academie virtual reality (VR) multi-user platform for micro businesses, but to showcase the power of VR for learning and development across emerging markets."

Media Contacts

Sarah Ely, Mastercard

+1 (914) 249 6714 |Sarah.Ely@mastercard.com

关于万事达卡的包容性增长中心

万事达卡的包容性增长中心advances equitable and sustainable economic growth and financial inclusion around the world. The Center leverages the company’s core assets and competencies, including data insights, expertise and technology, while administering the philanthropic Mastercard Impact Fund, to produce independent research, scale global programs and empower a community of thinkers, leaders and doers on the front lines of inclusive growth. For more information and to receive its latest insights, follow the Center on推特and LinkedIn, and subscribe to itsnewsletter。 

About Mastercard (NYSE: MA)

Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.

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