For Anjaneyalu, family is the most important thing in life. He operates his weaving business with the help of his wife and two children, in addition to a few paid laborers. Anjaneyalu looked for ways to expand his business and grow his family’s income to provide a more comfortable life. But, when he approached traditional banks, Anjaneyalu found the application process too complicated, and he wasn’t able to access the funds he needed to achieve his dreams.

Accion harnesses the power of digital technology to create a financially inclusive world, and our website is a critical tool for reaching our global audiences. In order to increase our reach and further enable the type of catalytic change we seek in financial inclusion, we’ve revamped the websites for Accion and the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion (CFI). This project is the result of months of research and analysis, collaboration, and most importantly, addressing needs that we heard from our audience.

Some of our favorite new features include:

• Curated knowledge products: To make browsing more intuitive, we’ve organized all…

As Nasreen Taj shares her hopes for growing her garment business, her daughter clings to her skirt, highlighting why planning for the future is vital to Nasreen. She runs her business out of her home in Bengaluru, India, so Nasreen’s two children get to see how hard their mother works every day to pursue her dreams.

Five years ago, Nasreen started making simple tops and leggings to sell. Artoo’s digital lending platform makes it possible for her to receive the financing that entrepreneurs like her need, easier and faster than before. In India, 70 percent of the country’s micro, small…

Deepak Kumar takes his job managing a guest house in Bengaluru seriously, keeping a close eye on the grounds and making sure every aspect is well-maintained. He rents a house nearby where he lives with his wife and their three-year-old child. He loves that working at the inn keeps him close to his family and allows him to take care of them.

When he’s not working at the guest house, Deepak sometimes drives a cab to bring in extra money to support his family. When he needed money to help with fuel costs and other expenses, he went to a…

In India’s rapidly-developing economy, millions of people with little or no experience using formal financial institutions find it virtually impossible to access loans, as they have nothing on which to build a credit history. Enter CreditMantri, a Chennai-based startup that has developed a proprietary algorithm that pulls in other data sources to build fuller credit profiles.

“A lot of consumers are not even aware of what their credit report looks like,” says CreditMantri co-founder Gowri Muhkerjee. In this interview, she explains how the company uses not only information from credit bureaus and banks, but also government records and “user-generated…

Bhuvanesh V grew up in a family of teachers outside of Chennai in Southern India. He’s since moved to the city, where he carries on this educational legacy in his work as a programmer for a learning company. He’s still close to his family, and when the time came for his sister to get married, he jumped at the chance to pay for her wedding. Unfortunately, banks weren’t as eager to work with him to make his sister’s dream wedding a reality.

“When you physically approach a bank, you won’t get a loan if you’re a new customer,” Bhuvanesh explains…

Accion’s President and CEO, Michael Schlein, is a busy guy. He travels to dozens of countries every year, manages more than 40 impact investments around the world, and directs a 150-person organization that spans a half a dozen time zones.

And that’s just his day job: Michael also has two young children, a wife, a family, and, occasionally, tickets to see The National or one of his other favorite bands.

It should come as no surprise that Michael prioritizes finding a work-life balance — both for himself and for the rest of Accion. During a recent conversation, Michael discussed how…

Vanaja T S’s world came apart when she lost her husband three years ago. But instead of giving up, she remained resilient.

After her loss, Vanaja poured her energy into raising her two children and running the family business in Bengaluru. Each day, she worked long hours managing the enterprise her husband had established manufacturing plugs.