Untapped inflection point in 2024
This newsletter was originally sent to our investor network on January 6th 2024.
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening!
In 2010, I began my journey with “impact,” initially through philanthropy and later via impact investing. After a decade of trying everything, I found that supporting local entrepreneurs with profitable businesses is the best way to drive change. Improving the system so that more capital can flow to the right hands is the key to positive change. This journey led to the creation of Untapped Global.
I’m thrilled to see Untapped’s rapid growth, approaching an inflection point in 2024, AND Excited to kickstart a transformative year. But first, here’s our 2023 by the numbers…
- $4.42M: YTD revenues, up 48% over 2022
- $1.31M: Q4 revenues, up 32% over Q3
- 22.57%: annualized USD return on deployed capital (cumulative to date)
- 19,296: number of micro-entrepreneurs supported through Untapped financing, up 43% from 2022
- $32,152,727: our economic impact to date, measured as small business revenue catalyzed by Untapped financing since January 2021. Details on what this means here.
- 100%: repayment rate to our Note holders
The New
2024 will be an inflection point for us. We expect to see . . . .
- An acceleration of our revenue growth and impact on catalyzing community wealth through small businesses
- The maturation of our data platform, useful for us and our institutional investment partners to better manage financing risk in high-return, high-impact markets such as those in Africa
- Our team expanding and honing our capabilities, so we’re ready for the rapid growth and impact at scale coming soon
Hopefully, we’ll find new investment partners in 2024 with aligned values and outlook on the power of data and embedded finance to help us to take our model global.
The Personal Stuff, if you’re still reading . . . .
My aunt passed, days after Christmas, after a sudden return of lymphoma which she had been fighting for the last three decades. Her daughters hosted us so we could all see her again and say our goodbyes. She left peacefully days later surrounded by beloved family and friends.
Her daughters created a small booklet of “Her Life in Her Own Words,” which told of her early life growing up on a farm in rural Taiwan, moving to the US in the 60’s, and raising two daughters in the 70’s and 80’s in Chicago where I visited during the summer.
Her life offered a reminder of the importance of our words and actions as an example to those around us. She is a role model of love and compassion, acceptance and survival that helped shape her daughters, her grandchildren, and many others.
Our holiday season was a reminder of the importance of having family & friends close, that we always have the opportunity to be better people, and that we have the power to be an example others follow for the better.
She will always be a role model and inspiration, and I hope to do the same for others one day.
What I’m reading…
The World Is Becoming More African
“Africa has the fastest growing, youngest population of any continent. By 2050, one in four people on the planet will be African. Early tremors of this seismic change are already registering around the world.” Read more by New York Times
$330B/year opportunity in emerging market green investments
“Research released today shows dozens of green technologies are now cheaper than incumbent fossil-fuel products in emerging markets, sparking a wave of climate investing…” Read more from LeapFrog Investments
