Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2022 – Leading early-stage inclusive fintech investor Accion Venture Lab, part of global nonprofit Accion, today announced the program and featured speakers for the Fintech for Inclusion Summit, taking place in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Nov. 3, 2022. Organized with the support of FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, the summit will bring together fintech founders, practitioners, and investors from around the world to hear from innovators at the forefront of the industry and to discuss shared challenges.
The summit will explore how inclusive fintechs are addressing some of the most pressing issues regarding access to affordable financial services, including efforts to support the financially excluded through the COVID-19 economic recovery, and how innovations in agriculture finance are enabling new opportunities for farmers and providing tools to combat and mitigate climate risk. Participants will discuss how to use technologies like embedded finance, Web3, and platform innovations to provide inclusive solutions to underserved businesses, how to implement a gender lens to investment strategies, and how the gig economy can shape the future of work. Networking sessions and plenary meetings will enable participants to connect throughout the day.
“Accion Venture Lab and its partners are excited to bring together fintech founders and investors from across the globe to explore this rapidly evolving sector,” said Amee Parbhoo, Co-Managing Partner of Venture Lab. “This is a unique opportunity for participants to gain insights from early-stage fintech CEOs, build leadership capacity across borders and sectors, and develop productive partnerships.”
“Following the successful 2019 edition, we are excited to welcome back fintech founders and the impact investing community to The Hague. The FMO Ventures Program empowers innovative business models for impact — first and foremost for inclusion — and we are thrilled to exchange knowledge and network with our partners and Summit participants,” said Marieke Roestenberg, Manager of the FMO Ventures Program.
Speakers will include Michael Jongeneel, CEO of FMO; TS Anil, Global CEO of Monzo, the U.K.’s largest digital bank; Michael Schlein, President and CEO of Accion; Albert Boogaard, Head of Smallholder Solutions at Rabobank; Kenneth Kou, crypto lead at Mercy Corps Ventures; and other leading industry experts. Fintech founders from Accion Venture Lab and FMO Ventures Program investee companies will also share their expertise, including Eli Pollak from Apollo, Jihan Abass from Lami, Suzy Ferreira from Dinie, Tosin Eniolorunda from TeamApt, and many more.
In addition to the robust speaker lineup, more than 200 founders, practitioners, and investors will attend, including leaders from the collective 44 inclusive fintech companies across the global portfolios of Accion Venture Lab and FMO Ventures Program.
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About Accion Venture Lab
Accion Venture Lab is a leading early-stage impact investor in inclusive fintech startups focused on affordable, well-designed financial services that enable economic growth and prosperity for underserved populations around the world. It has invested in 60 early-stage startups operating in more than 35 countries, focusing on the most innovative models and technologies delivering quality financial services to underserved households and small businesses with the potential to scale.
Accion Venture Lab is a part of Accion, a global nonprofit committed to creating a financially inclusive world, with a trailblazing legacy in microfinance and fintech impact investing. For 60 years, Accion has increased access to inclusive financial services for tens of millions of people through its work with more than 200 partners in 63 countries. For more information, visit https://accion.org/venturelab.
About FMO
FMO is the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. As a leading impact investor, FMO supports sustainable private sector growth in developing countries and emerging markets by investing in ambitious projects and entrepreneurs. FMO believes that a strong private sector leads to economic and social development and has a 50+ year proven track-record in empowering entrepreneurs to make local economies more inclusive, productive, resilient and sustainable. FMO focuses on three sectors that have high development impact: Agribusiness, Food & Water, Energy, and Financial Institutions. With a total committed portfolio of EUR ~12 billion spanning over 85 countries, FMO is one of the larger bilateral private sector development banks globally. Through the FMO Ventures Program, a EUR 200 mln investment program funded by FMO, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and supported by the European Commission, FMO targets early-stage technology-enabled innovative business models in emerging markets. For more information: please visit www.fmo.nl/venturesprogram.