Introducing the Six Innovative Startups of the 2022 IDEO Last Mile Money Accelerator

In addition to a $50K grant and membership in the CICO Collective, each startup will receive curated design support

After the success of our first accelerator program, we’re excited to announce the cohort of our second program, the 2022 Last Mile Money Accelerator. This year, we will be working with six incredible companies, providing them with world-class design support to further our mission of serving last-mile communities with digital financial services and cash-in/cash-out innovations.

Why focus on the last mile?

At Last Mile Money, our mission is to bring world-class financial services to millions of last-mile users. We believe that thoughtfully designed solutions can help build financial resilience and create pathways to a better life for millions of last-mile users.

Today, this quickly-growing market is largely underserved by current digital financial tools, which are often not designed with the needs of last-mile users in mind. We use IDEO’s human-centered design approach to propel ventures by building intuitive products and services, helping to ensure that products and services are designed holistically.

A choose-your-own-adventure approach to design support

Not all companies are at the same stage in their development — and not all of them have the same design gaps. In addition to a $50K grant and membership in the CICO Collective, startups can access the level of support that matches their product and business needs.

There are three options to choose from:

• Design Sprint: The startup identifies a design challenge, and collaborates with a team of IDEO designers to prototype or pilot a product, service, or business model over a period of four weeks.
• Designer-on-Loan: An IDEO designer is embedded in the startup’s product team to work on a specific design challenge over 5–6 weeks.
• Design Office Hours: Dedicated IDEO designers host weekly office hours for the startup’s product team, brainstorming around product challenges and opportunities that arise that week, over a period of 8–10 weeks.

Meet the six startups of the 2022 accelerator

After evaluating over 450 applications, we’re excited to announce the six startups joining the 2022 Last Mile Money Accelerator.

Gigmile

Gigmile is creating the services and financial infrastructure for gig work in Africa, focused on democratizing access to asset financing, working capital, and key services which gig workers require to succeed in Africa’s rising Gig Economy.

As part of the accelerator, Last Mile Money will work with Gigmile to design a peer-to-peer money exchange marketplace for gig workers to help mobile money agents and themselves manage their everyday cash needs.

Haqdarshak

Haqdarshak Empowerment Solutions provides assisted-tech services for doorstep delivery of welfare entitlements and financial inclusion services for individuals and businesses in India.

As part of the accelerator, Last Mile Money will work with Haqdarshak to empower their field agents to become self-sustaining by expanding their portfolio of services to include multiple welfare entitlements at the same time, as well as offering banking services.

MarketForce

MarketForce is a super-app for informal merchants, digitizing access to retail and financial services that help them operate and grow their businesses.

As part of the accelerator, Last Mile Money will work with Marketforce to test incentives and experiences that promote the use of digital customer payments to informal merchants.

Opareta

Opareta is a digital infrastructure platform that connects analog agent networks to financial and digital services.

As part of the accelerator, Last Mile Money will work with Opareta to design an experience to boost the financial literacy and confidence of agents — focused on moments when they’re taking out a float loan, and encouraging them to exercise good judgment in the amount of risk to take on.

Paisa

Paisa offers affordable remittance-backed loans via a frictionless WhatsApp bot at the remittance agent touchpoint, providing an accessible onramp to digital financial services for the nearly 90% of cash-based remittance receivers in Latin America.

As part of the accelerator, Last Mile Money will work with Paisa to design an onboarding experience that gets Paisa agents excited to deliver to users, rather than viewing it as an interruption in their everyday work.

Waynbo

Waynbo’s low-code banking software enables DFS companies to build, connect, and distribute financial services to last-mile locations through a network of dedicated agents, staff, or Waynbo’s aggregator community in Nigeria, Uganda, and Mozambique.

As part of the accelerator, Last Mile Money will work with Waynbo to deliver a frictionless activation for agent network operators and improve the app’s value propositions and usability to achieve growth in weekly transactions.

Stay tuned for updates as we develop these projects over the course of the accelerator!

The 2022 Last Mile Money Accelerator team includes Hayden Simmons, Becca Carrol, John Won, Kanika Kumar, Dipika Prasad, and Garima Dahiya. For further inquiries, please contact LastMileMoney@ideo.com.