This content is provided courtesy of the MIT students listed in the Project Team table, and is used with permission.
About
Get New Money aims to increase microfinance market penetration in Ecuador and provide a solution that can be easily leveraged in other developing countries. Over the past decade, there has been a 50% growth in the microfinance market in Latin America, yet only 3% of the population is being served. We want to change that.
We are introducing a multi-level-marketing (MLM) scheme linked to a network of mobile phones. Basically, in MLM, a borrower can act as a “micro-agent” and search for other potential clients. Each micro-agent receives commission based on the loans that are materialized through them, as well as for those that happen through any other micro-agent they recruited. As time goes on, we expect the network of micro-agents to expand and reach places that we would have never reached otherwise.
On the phone, we will offer a product that will enable users to do pre-screenings and data processing very easily and fast. It will basically work as a data collector that will talk to a back-end server, where all the computation is made. Our focus is to make this available in low-end phones, with the objective of making it as viral as possible. With that in mind, we will implement it as an SMS service or as a Java Mobile Edition (J2ME) application on the phone.
We are very excited about this project. This idea has been tried before and, in essence, was proven successful. In practice, the idea failed because the microfinance institution that implemented it lacked the infrastructure to handle the exponential growth in applicants. But that is were our project partner, Cobiscorp, makes the difference. They specialize in IT backing for financial services firms and have been in the industry for over 30 years. Together with a new streamlined loan application process, inviting commision scheme, and solid infrastructure, we can certainly revolutionalize the microfinance industry.
Partners
Project Team
| ROLES | TEAM MEMBERS |
|---|---|
| Students | Three anonymous MIT students |
|
Video journalists (from Emerson College) |
Helyne Adamson Josh Kirchmer |
| Advisor | Elisabeth Megally |
Project Documentation
Slides are presented courtesy of the students, used with permission. Videos are from nextlab on Vimeo, and are not covered by our Creative Commons license.
| DELIVERABLE | VIDEOS AND SLIDES |
|---|---|
| FINAL PROJECT | |
| Summary | |
| Demonstration | |
| Final Class Presentation |
Get New Money Final Presentation from nextlab on Vimeo. |
| MILESTONE PRESENTATIONS | |
| Milestone 1: Elevator Pitch | |
| Milestone 2: Needs Assessment | |
| Milestone 3: System Design and Initial Implementation | |
| Milestone 4: Sustainability |
Get New Money Milestone 4/Sustainability Plan from nextlab on Vimeo. |
