Deploying a fintech product and onboarding — Sprint 4 learnings with FCDO

Written by Marcus Scaramanga. CEO & Founder — Minexx

During the fourth sprint, we have been looking at how to design our product for the gold market and onboard more customers.

Deploying a fintech product for the sector

Minexx introduced a new fintech product offering focussed on providing access to financial products to our partners. Partners start with MineSmart (the operating system for small-scale mining), where data on due diligence, traceability, and transactions is registered. This data allows the platform to attribute a credit score to the entity and can give them access to Minexx Capital.

Minexx Capital offers loans for miners with a good credit score backed by data from the platform and guaranteed by the cooperative/mineral buyers. These can be in the form of prefinancing and trade finance. But it also allows cooperatives to get loans, to purchase equipment or for development. Banks do not currently finance the ASM sector due to concerns over compliance and creditworthiness, by tackling these two challenges holistically Minexx can provide a solution.

Deploying this model — traceability data influencing a credit score which in turn enables access to financing options — represents a successful implementation of the plans we outlined in November 2020.

Minexx is now working with partners across a variety of markets from DRC to Burkina Faso to Nigeria.

Onboarding new partners

Onboarding new partners on the platform is a rewarding part of the journey.

We have found a few inefficiencies in our onboarding process so have been working to address this with our product and support teams. All partners are slightly different in terms of how much support they require and familiarity with technology. We must ensure we can adjust our onboarding to meet these differing needs.

Partnership model with NGOs

Minexx has staff in a variety of markets — it is essential for us to be close to the ground to get a good understanding of our customers’ challenges.

On the ground, Minexx is focused on partnering with NGOs, where possible to manage due diligence assessments and site visits as we launch in a new market. Minexx has since formed partnerships with a number of NGOs. Leveraging their track record and Minexx’s regtech and fintech products to bring further market access and benefits to miners.

The advantage of this is we can leverage the local experience of our partners — trust is essential in working with artisanal miners and a good command of the local environment, risks and norms are essential for success. There are challenges such as increased travel for our team (not easy in covid!)

Ultimately, securing the mineral supply chain from earth to tech requires strong partnerships with cooperatives, buyers, governments, financiers, and NGOs.

ASM accounts for 30% of global mineral production. These minerals are essential for our global net-zero transition however without clear accountability and transparency in the supply chain we will not have a just transition. Technology lies at the heart of enabling this.

During our next sprint, we’ll be developing further our fintech product and looking at the best avenues to scale.