#24 impact Bulletin | May 2023

Your monthly update about impactMarket’s efforts towards financial inclusion.

impactMartket’s monthly bulletin

Time flies and half of 2023 is almost gone! In this edition of our monthly bulletin, we are thrilled to share with you a sum-up of a great May full of accomplishments, hard work, and consistent growth. Some of our highlights include:

Updates about our MICROCREDIT

In May, we shared with you about our microcredit pilot in Uganda, allowing us to better understand the microcredit requirements of users in the country and the region while testing the replication of the pilot in Brazil, getting insights to develop this new product at a global scale. You can get to know more about our newest product by reading our previous articles:

• Microcredit as a key driver of financial empowerment.
• Microcredit pilot in Brazil: overview and takeaways.

The multiplier effect of impactMarket

Our impact goes beyond the individual change in the lives of thousands of beneficiaries receiving Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) in almost 30 countries. We recently explored the multiplier effect of impactMarket in a Medium article, going deeper into the collective impact of our solutions igniting growth and development in local economies. It means that each dollar donated can have a multiplier effect of up to 15x in the communities supported considering the economic activity generated.

Another insightful article published in May explores the Cost Efficiency of DeFi for Humanitarian Assistance, which also helps to understand the effectiveness of what we do by leveraging blockchain technology for social impact.

News about the Celo Europe DAO proposal

Following great discussions with the communities regarding the Celo Europe DAO proposal, an updated version was published on the Celo Forum and discussed during the last Celo Governance Call. Aligned with the positioning of other regional DAOs of Celo, the goal is to contribute to boosting the visibility, reach, engagement, and impact of the network in Europe. You can join the discussion group on Telegram here.

Be our guest

Our updates from May:

Business, Partnerships, and Events

• May was all about scaling our Microcredit pilot; more than 48 borrowers were onboarded for a total of more than 25k cUSD disbursed, you can learn more from our global dashboard here.
• Attracting partners to our new Learn&earn has also been another important item this month, with the launch of the HaloFi course among our communities in Uganda, Nigeria, and Kenya. New and diverse partnerships are being made to expand not only on the potential of other DeFi protocols but also on broader skills that can serve beneficiaries’ future growth.
• Our COO Jessica Gaubert joined some of our friends from the Celo Ecosystem — Rene from the Celo Foundation, Ruth from Bitmama, Charles from Nuzo, and Serge from DuniaPay — for a panel on “web3 in Africa: Onboarding the next billion users” organized by SCB 10X. You can watch the replay of the session here
• Our CMO Susanne Zapelão participated as a speaker in two events in May: the Impact First — Digital Development Summit and May’s edition of CryptoMondays in Lisbon focused on ReFi, bringing to both events the impactMarket use case using the best of Web3 tools to drive financial inclusion.
• Susanne also gave a masterclass about business iteration in Web3 (in Spanish) as part of the Celo Incuba program by Colledge and Celo in Latin America.

Product Development

• Starting with Microcredit: We’ve got the Loan Manager dashboard which can be used to track the borrowers/loans progress. Loan Managers can also see the profile of a borrower, in which they can see repayments for a given loan, application history, etc.
• Borrowers also see their repayment history.
• Libera got a whole new welcome page to authenticate. Biometrics is now opt-in for users that have biometrics support. Previously it was mandatory.
• The requested referral feature is under development, done for the most part. We’ve also launched the buy-back PACT on testnet and are preparing the mainnet release.
• A rework on pre-set push notifications.
• We’ve also focused on cleaning issues.
• Reworked the Learn and Earn so that it is scalable and we can have more control, have filters, etc.
• Last but not least, we’ve worked quite actively on having WalletConnect v2 fully integrated and working. It will be live in a few days.

Design

• Social Media Marketing support.
• Dev Support.
• Microcredit Manager Dashboard View.
• Support for application review (Microcredit Manager).
• Medium posts illustrations.
• Global Figma pages reorganization.

Communication

On the comms side, we have 2 words for you: PRODUCT HUNT. Soon we will tell you more about our product launch on this platform, known for allowing users to discover and share new products, services, and innovations. Which impactMarket solution do you think we will launch at Product Hunt?

Other tasks on a daily basis include social media management, content creation for our channels in English and Brazilian Portuguese (Social Media, Telegram/ Discord, Medium blog, Push Notifications, and the monthly newsletter), and the communication strategy, planning, and execution of supporting product launches, pilots, partnerships, announcements, and branding.

Communities

June is on our doorstep, eagerly waiting to make its entrance, but before it does, we can’t resist giving you an exciting update on the month of May! Brace yourself for some thrilling news: we’ve launched new courses for our communities. So our vibrant communities now have the incredible opportunity to indulge in more than just one lesson per week! Picture this: more knowledge at your fingertips, more rewards to unlock, and an even greater embrace of the world of cryptocurrencies!

We continue to host our weekly calls, where community managers and beneficiaries alike can come together not only to seek answers to their burning questions but also to explore the vast possibilities our platform offers in the realm of web3.

As always, we capped off the month with our highly anticipated monthly meeting. It’s the highlight of our community calendar, where we unveil the winner of the monthly challenge and reveal the exhilarating rules for the next one. This gathering is a delightful opportunity for our communities to mingle, connect, and forge bonds that transcend borders.

Allow us to extend a resounding congratulations to the outstanding community of Generación Contra Corriente in Venezuela, who claimed the illustrious title of May’s monthly prize recipient.

Let´s dig in by country:

• Kingsley Godwin, country ambassador in Nigeria, onboarded five new communities in Nigeria. He also represented impactMarket at Bitcoin Pizza Day, an event on Bitcoin Education and Adoption in Africa. He also visited the University of Abuja to survey and meet with the student community towards onboarding them in the impactMarket Learn and Earn Course.
• Bamwerinde Hannah country ambassador of Uganda has been focused on promoting microcredit within the country for the pilot. We are also moving forward with a new pilot with mobile bankers. This month we started a training course for mobile bankers, and in June, they will start their operations.
• Juan Aguilar, country ambassador in Venezuela, was invited to Panorama Internacional to be interviewed at radio WTC. https://wtcradio.net/podcasts/panorama-internacional/

Remember, if you are a local social organization or an education entity, learn more about impactMarket communities and apply now to create your community.

Research and Impact Measurement

• In the month of May, as the Impact Measurement Team was joined by two Researchers to do an internship, the team has begun working on these major topics of assessments:
  1. Microcredit: supporting interviews, post-interview analysis, credit scoring, data management, and analysis
  2. Expanding the information recorded on our Theory of Change
  3. Impact reports of the ongoing microcredit pilot in Uganda
• With our department’s involvement in setting up and analyzing impactMarket’s Microcredit, we are seeing immense progress, impact, and happiness from the communities that are receiving it. In addition to simultaneously picking up learnings from our pilots and testing it out in the next phase of the pilot, there are several learning opportunities to share with our ecosystem at large.
• In an effort to remind our donors of the high impact of impactMarket’s UBI protocol, our team deep-dived into an analysis of the multiplier effect of blockchain-powered UBI on our communities that are receiving it. Please read it here and share comments and questions!

impactMarket Talents

• In this month’s edition of our “Meet Our Team” series, we introduced you to one of our talented Frontend Developers, Hugo Marques. IIf you haven’t read it yet, we highly encourage you to check out the article! It provides a fascinating glimpse into Hugo’s journey, his insights on Web3 technology, and the significant contributions he has made to impactMarket’s mission. It’s also a celebration of his first-year milestone with us, and we believe it’s worth your time to explore and learn more about his inspiring story. Enjoy reading!
• On May 16 we were thrilled to celebrate the 1st impactversary of our talented Frontend Developer, Paulo Sousa! Paulo, your presence on our team has made a difference, and we are grateful for your hard work and dedication. Your willingness to go the extra mile has consistently impressed us and contributed to our success. Continuing the celebration mood, we have another exciting milestone to acknowledge! On May 31, we celebrated the 2nd Work Anniversary of our amazing Susanne Zapelão! We want to express our heartfelt appreciation for your continuous efforts and the enthusiasm you bring to your work every day. Your contributions have been invaluable, and we are grateful to have you as a part of our team. Here’s to many more years to come!
• We’re excited to share that this month we welcomed two talented mission-driven volunteers, Onye Dike and Yingshi Huang, to our team. They are making significant contributions to our Research & Impact Measurement Team, particularly in the area of developing impact practices and research methodologies for our range of blockchain products and services, with a focus on Microcredit. Onye brings valuable expertise with a Master’s Degree in Development Economics and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Portugal, specializing in the labor market in developing countries. Yingshi, on the other hand, has a background in Economics and a strong passion for Sustainable Development. Currently, she is pursuing a Master’s degree in Business and Social Impact at Utrecht University. We extend our sincere gratitude to Onye and Yingshi for joining our team and dedicating their time and skills to our mission. We are thrilled to have them on board and look forward to the positive impact they will help us create. Once again, a warm welcome to Onye and Yingshi!
• If you feel inspired by our project and would also like to support impactMarket with your passion, time, and skills, please check out some of our open opportunities in Web Development and Brand Design. You’ll have the opportunity to learn every day and deal with exciting challenges and develop your maximum potential while contributing to our mission of promoting financial inclusion and literacy to empower underprivileged people all over the world. Are you ready to dream with us? Apply now and join our mission!

As we enter the month of June, we remain enthusiastic about the promising prospects that await us. We eagerly anticipate the journey of building, envisioning, and creating a meaningful impact together. Your unwavering support is greatly appreciated, and let’s persistently strive toward our shared goals. Thank you for being a part of this incredible journey!

You can find impactMarket also on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, GitHub, Youtube, Telegram, and Discord.

impactMarket (The Human Empowerment Protocol)

impactMarket provides accessible financial solutions to empower underprivileged people all over the world, unlocking opportunities and human potential. Our inclusive protocol is transparent, reliable, and borderless. It operates as a DAO on top of the Celo network, using $PACT as its governance token while running autonomously through smart contracts.

impactLabs (the company)

impactLabs Lda, based in Portugal, was founded in Nov 2020 by Marco Barbosa, Bernardo Vieira, Afonso Barbosa, and eSolidar. The company is focused on building accessible decentralized systems to unleash human potential and disrupt access to finance while driving DeFi adoption.