OVER 10,000 Filipino micro and small enterprises are set to benefit from accessible digital financial services through the partnership between Boost Capital and Mastercard. Launched less than a year ago under the global Mastercard Strive initiative, the program has already onboarded 15 financial service providers.
Mastercard Strive is a portfolio of philanthropic programs – supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which supports small businesses around the world to thrive in the digital economy. This Mastercard Strive program in the Philippines is delivered by Caribou.
These partners include Asialink, Paymongo, UNO Digital Bank, RAFI Microfinance, and Cantilan Bank, which together serve over 25 million clients nationwide. Boost’s white-labeled tech lets financial service providers expand their customer reach even further, so they can now onboard small businesses anytime and anywhere by using Facebook Messenger and Viber for bank applications and payment processing.
Signing on 15 partners surpasses Boost’s initial goal five-fold, signaling a positive outlook for the collaboration and hinting at the market’s desire for greater access to digital financial tools. In the Philippines, MSMEs account for 99% of all business establishments and employ roughly 63% of the country’s workforce, according to the UNDP[1]—highlighting their crucial role in the economy.
Boost co-founder Gordon Peters shared, “We launched this program because Micro and Small Businesses, especially those led by women, are a vital part of the Filipino economy. Boost’s tech can address the barriers they face in accessing financial services. In less than four months, we are excited to see 15 partner companies launching Boost’s chat-based onboarding for loans, savings accounts and payment processing for small business customers. Between them, these financial service providers serve over 25 million clients already, so we’re optimistic we’ll impact far more than the 10,000 small businesses we initially set out to serve.”
Peters gave credit to its partners, noting, “It’s fantastic that banks and payment systems in the Philippines are jumping at the chance to serve small and medium-sized businesses and especially women-led enterprises. It shows how much demand there is for no-barrier-to-entry options like Boost’s chat-based tech.”
Peters added, “Small business owners can focus on growing their businesses rather than waiting in line at a bank to fill out an application; instead they just chat with the bank through Messenger or Viber. It’s a huge time saver for women entrepreneurs and a huge expansion in the customer base for the banks.”
When asked how Boost signed on 15 partners in less than a year since its launch, co-founder Lucinda Revell attributed a lot of the success to the unique partnership they have with Mastercard Strive, an initiative under the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.
“Their support has made it so much easier for financial institutions to adopt Boost’s tech. Because we configure the Boost tech to each bank’s brand and product application criteria, we normally charge a setup fee to the bank. But with Mastercard Strive’s support, we’ve been able to significantly reduce the customization fee financial institutions usually pay to have Boost tech configured for them. Thanks to that subsidization, a wider set of banks and financial institutions can adopt digital onboarding.”
She added, “Through our partnership with Mastercard Strive, we’ve enhanced our AI technology to deliver sophisticated, yet cost-effective solutions tailored for small businesses. Our upgraded features now include advanced dialect recognition and expanded document validation capabilities.”
Initially announced last year, the collaboration between Boost and Mastercard Strive has already brought in far more financial service providers than expected. However, they reserved a few spots for additional banks and payment service providers who have a specific interest in serving female entrepreneurs.
