SME FINANCE FORUM
Webinar
SME Finance Virtual Marketplace - Fourth Session - Fintechs
The “SME Finance Virtual Marketplace” is an online match-making platform that promotes partnership and collaboration between members of the SME Finance Forum, especially financial institutions, fintech companies and development finance institutions/ investors. The virtual Marketplace is powered by GlobalLinker, an AI powered ‘Digital Ecosystem’ offering SMEs a range of services to build digital presence including e-commerce.
How does the Marketplace operate?
To participate in the marketplace session, each member of the SME Finance Forum must have 1) an institutional profile (company profile) and personal profiles (individuals representing the companies) set up on the marketplace. Institutional profile shall also include products/services being offered by the members. With institutional profile and personal profile, representatives of member institutions will be able to explore different offerings by other members such as investment products, advisory services, technology solutions...etc. The virtual platform will enable members to reach out to one another to discuss potential collaboration and partnership at their own convenience.
Fourth Marketplace Session
This fourth marketplace session, scheduled on Wednesday, September 22nd from 8 am - 9:00 EDT, will feature a series of fintechs who will present their products/services. Following the presentations, participants will have the opportunities to reach out directly to the presenting fintech to make inquiries or explore partnership opportunities based on their interests.
Meet the Fintech Presenters
Bloom Impact
Carol Caruso is an innovative leader with 20 years global business development, inclusive finance and digital technology experience. Currently the CEO and Co-Founder of Bloom Impact, a social impact, Fintech startup, Carol has extensive experience and passion in driving social impact, innovation and inclusive finance through the use of innovative technology such as mobile apps/payments, online platforms, biometrics, remittances and agent networks. She has worked on a wide variety of digital inclusive finance initiatives and collaborated with partners such as leading Telcos (Safaricom, Airtel, MTN, Tigo), Fintech vendors, payment companies (Visa, Mastercard), Central Banks, Social Impact investors and private companies. Carol has held prior positions as SVP Digital Channels & Tech at Accion International, Managing Director of Triple Jump Advisory Services – a Dutch responsible investment manager, Financial Inclusion Expert at Kiva and EMEA Director at Broadvision. Carol brings a unique combination of experience from having worked in Europe, US, Africa, Asia, and LATAM within both private and public sectors. She is a board member and advisor for several social impact startups in Africa and the US, and a mentor and judge for the UC Berkeley BigIdeas startup competition and MIT’s Inclusive Innovation Challenge and $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. During the 2017-18 academic year, Caruso joined Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government as a joint Visiting Social Innovator (VSI) at the Social Innovation and Change Initiative and Visiting Hauser Leader at the Center for Public Leadership. She continues to serve as a Beck VSI at SICI.
Bnkability
Emem Usanga is the CEO and Founder of Bnkability, a technology company that ensures African trade transactions are creditworthy and investment ready unlocking capital for SMEs whilst derisking dealflow for financial institutions. Through this solution, Bnkability is aiming to contribute to moving the needle on Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic development. With a business development career spanning over 15 years in advertising, she has worked for startups as well as corporates including Glow, Haymarket Publishing and WPP’s 24/7 Real Media. In her spare time, Emem has been London Local Lead for the Interaction Design Foundation, Adas List Strategy Committee member and member of the UK Africa Fintech Investment Group (a DFID & DiT partnership). She is Co-Lead of TLA Africa.
CashDirector
Patrycja Strzelecka is the co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer at CashDirector. CashDirector’s Digital CFO solution for SMEs helps banks provide financial management services to small businesses at an affordable price. The platform allows SMEs to save time through automated daily finance management, understand their cash-flow needs in real-time, and interact online with their bank to balance short-term deficits or get funding. At the same time, through integration with their online banking platform, banks are able to obtain valuable information crucial for better risk assessment and to offer personalized on-demand products in an automated and efficient way. Patrycja's expertise include Fintech, finance and accounting management, outsourcing. Prior to CashDirector she was Managing Director at TMF Group and Head of Marketing at Raiffeisen Bank in Poland. Alumni of Barclays TechStars PwC Raise and DBS SuperCharger Accelerators Patrycja understand the dynamics of scaling companies as well as partnering with banks. She graduated from the International Silesian Business School in Poland and holds an MBA from Université du Québec à Montréal
Dymamic Resources (CashNow)
Moazzam Ahmed is a co-founder at Dynamic Resources – a Fintech startup focused on addressing SMEs cashflow challenges. This is the first Supply Chain Finance portal operating in Pakistan, under the trademark CashNow™ which is focused on the B2B segment of the economy. The company became operational in March 2021 and has processed over PKR 200mn in transactions. This company is focused on digitizing the SME eco-system, to improve transparency and efficiency. Before embarking on this project, Moazzam was as a Senior Country Officer in Pakistan for the International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank Group for over 14 years. Prior to IFC, Moazzam was a consultant with Cap Gemini Ernst and Young for over 10 years.
Vector ML Analytics
Sadeq Safarini is the CEO and founder of Vector ML Analytics, the founder of Global Structured Finance ( and former senior director of Dealnet Capital, a publicly traded Canadian firm with over 500 employees He was responsible for building the treasury and securitization function in addition to being involved in the design and implementation of the business plan. His expertise in treasury, securitization, and credit risk helped the company grow its book from 50 M to 200 M by the end of 2018. Sadeq has extensive financial experience in major banks, trusts, public companies, fintech, and credit rating agencies He has held multiple consulting positions in both London and Toronto, where he was able to turn complex financial data into simple value added information to examine business plans and strategically steer businesses in the right direction. His areas of expertise include machine learning, data science, automation, credit rating, structured finance, securitization, Asset Backed Securities ( Mortgage Backed Securities ( Asset Liability Management ( liquidity planning forecasting, debt capital markets, risk management, stress testing, financial modeling, business valuation, investor reporting, capital planning analysis, compliance, and cross functional leadership.
Relive the session here>
For more information, please contact us at smefinanceforum@ifc.org
By registering to this event, you agree to the SME Finance Forum/IFC Event Privacy Notice.
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Core Features & Capabilities of the SME Finance Marketplace
- Access the Marketplace Platform: As representatives from member institutions, you can access the Marketplace via your personal LinkedIn or Google accounts or simply by signing up via your work email address here> smeff-marketplace.globallinker.com/
- Onboarding: Once the personal account is created, you will be guided through an onboarding process to set up the company profile.
- Overview: Company Name, selecting head office from Google Maps, selecting member type, uploading logo.
- Company Profile: to have a rich company profile, it’s recommended that you provide a brief description about the company. It’d be helpful to indicate what your company offers or what it’s looking for from potential partner institutions. It’s advisable to add digital addresses like website, company’s LinkedIn profile or FB business page links if available.
- Marketplace Offerings/Listings: Creating service listings across 8 categories, adding a brochure, video links, cover image etc., if available.
- Individual User Profile: as representatives of your institution, you shall have your personal profiles on the marketplace platform to enhance networking opportunities. It’s important to add your designation, job role/designation, time zone to schedule meetings, digital addresses like personal LinkedIn profile, profile photo etc. *Company profile set up is a one-time exercise and any colleague joining from the same company thereafter can simply select the company name and all the details will be prepopulated.
- Marketplace: All listings on the marketplace are classified under 8 categories. You can choose to view all listings, or a particular category based on your interests/needs. You could send enquiries directly to companies that you’re interested in or schedule meetings with the key contacts/representatives of the company
- Enquiries: Interested members can send enquiries directly to the company by clicking on the "Send Enquiry" button on the listing and the enquiry is sent via direct message and an email notification.
- Member Directory: You can browse through the member directory to learn about their work or products/services they offer. You can filter members by their types, review offerings & requirements, visit company profiles, user profiles or listings pages to know more about the company.
- Schedule meetings: You can send request for meetings on the platform by selecting the participants you wish to invite. You can upload attachments if helpful.
- Messages: Members can send instant messages to other members on the platform to network or explore opportunities. If a specific member is online, their profiles will be carrying a green "Online" tag.
- Invite Colleagues: you could invite your colleagues to create their profiles so to expand your company’s presence on the marketplace. While creating their profiles, they have to simply select the company they belong to and all the details set up by you will be pre-filled.
If you have any questions or to learn more, read the User Manual in this link.
Feel free to let us know should you have any questions or need any assistance to smefinanceforum@ifc.org.