Introducing Jia: The Key to Unlocking Financing for Millions of Entrepreneurs
Imagine a financial institution that’s more than just a bank. It’s a community — a financial co-op that is owned and operated by its members, where each person contributes to the common good, and everyone benefits from low-cost financial services. In a co-op, members not only share the profits, but they also have a voice in the decision-making process.
Many traditional financial lending platforms are forced to put profits for their shareholders above providing benefits to their borrowers. But what if we could have our cake and eat it too?
What if we could create a financial system where everyone wins, where borrowers can access affordable loans while still generating profits for investors, and themselves?
I knew the existing microfinancing approach wasn’t working when I was in Manila and met Armand, a small business owner well known for his trademark malunggay pandesal, a fluffy Filipino breakfast bun made with moringa. His commitment to his craft means he does well, turning a healthy profit and employing fifty people. And yet, when it came time to expand, he struggled to secure financing.
The reality is that millions of hard-working entrepreneurs are locked out of the financial system in emerging markets, where banks’ legacy lending practices leave a credit gap of roughly $5 trillion for micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) in emerging markets. Even when banks or other lenders step in to provide financing, their high interest rates end up extracting much of the value created by entrepreneurs.
Inspired by ambitious entrepreneurs like Armand, my friends Cheng Cheng, Ivan Orone, Ye (Yuting) Wang, and I knew we wanted to fill this gap in financing micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). A year later, we’re excited to officially launch Jia out of stealth.
Introducing Jia
The hard truth is that banks build products as one-way streets based on transactions, not relationships. The bank gives you a loan, you repay it, and everyone moves on. There’s often no sustained investment in you or your community.
Jia, on the other hand, is rooted in relationships and the cooperative exchange of value — borrowers are rewarded with ownership, ensuring they grow economically and can build wealth for long-term growth and resilience.
Our vision for the future of microfinancing goes back to the fundamentals of community finance, which fueled economies for generations. This model still dominates emerging markets where the vast majority of businesses are underserved and overlooked by formal financial institutions. In these regions, communal finance organizations go by different names, from SACCOs and chamas in East Africa, to tandas and juntas in Latin America, from paluwagan in the Philippines to arisan in Indonesia and chit funds in India.
The one common thread is that members have shared ownership of a communal pool of funds.
With the first token incentive model for MSMEs, Jia empowers borrowers to become active participants in a shared economy using blockchain-based loans, investments and ownership, to power small businesses in emerging markets.
Decentralized ledger technology allows us to distribute ownership fairly and efficiently by representing it in liquid form with a governance token. We can use permissionless blockchains to create trust, replacing the literal village with a digital one — and on a much larger scale. Our team saw the need for this working in fintech lending, when borrowers would ask for a piece of the ownership pie, but there was no way of providing it. That’s why we decided to create a new model to distribute ownership and fuel community-based finance.
Jia democratizes access to investments previously available only to DFIs, hedge funds, and institutional debt investors — and gives borrowers ownership to build personal and community wealth. Through our community networks, small businesses can participate as active members, access liquidity when needed, be rewarded for the value they contribute to the community, and gain resources to grow their businesses.
Jia also serves as a bridge between investors who want to make healthy returns and put their money behind owners of brick-and-mortar businesses who need capital to grow. By bringing their data on the blockchain, Jia is building a global data footprint for them to tap into capital they previously couldn’t reach.
Beyond financing, Jia is providing MSMEs with the business resources they need to help put their capital to work, like connections to cheaper suppliers, experts to take their businesses online, and networks to unlock new markets. Within our business service provider network, small businesses can connect with the expert marketing, legal, finance, accounting, operations, and sales advice they need to thrive.
What’s Next
We’re grateful that our investors share our vision for the future of financing. In addition to launching out of stealth, we’ve raised an oversubscribed $4.3M round of seed funding (with an additional $1M committed for on-chain liquidity) led by TCG, with participation from BlockTower Capital, Hashed Emergent, Saison Capital, Draft Ventures, Spice Capital, Compa Capital, Global Coin Research and angel investors Packy McCormick of Not Boring, Julia Lipton of Awesome People Ventures, Anand Iyer of Canonical Crypto, and great fintech founders like Rory Eakin (CircleUp) and Jared Hecht (Fundera by NerdWallet) — in addition to many other strategic investors. With their support, we’ll be continuing our rollout in Kenya and the Philippines, with plans to expand in the future.
If you’re an investor who’s interested in learning more about investment opportunities, we’re excited to announce the launch of our Pioneer Fund pool with Huma Finance at https://app.huma.finance/Jia.
While the first pool is already oversubscribed, we will launch another pool soon and would love to include you — to start the conversation, please fill out this form.
If you’re an entrepreneur looking for a financial partner to scale up your business, please check out https://www.jia.xyz/borrow and tell us more about yourself here!
Asante, salamat and thank you!
— Zach
