{"id":15995,"date":"2014-11-04T05:00:56","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tested-neuron.flywheelsites.com\/?p=15995"},"modified":"2015-02-17T13:44:15","modified_gmt":"2015-02-17T20:44:15","slug":"mexico-series-kiwi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/mexico-series-kiwi\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Financial Platform in Mexico Saves Lives and Money"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is part of\u00a0a series<\/a> documenting entrepreneurship in Mexico and the companies who participated in the inaugural Unreasonable Mexico<\/a> program.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

For 85 percent of Mexicans<\/strong>, one out of $13 of their savings makes it into a bank account. The other $12 are saved informally\u2014kept in cash under the mattress, for example.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say that because of the culture in Mexico that people don\u2019t save, and I disagree,\u201d says Enrique Bay, CEO of KIWI, a company that provides tailored pre-payment plans based in Mexico City. \u201cThey save much more than they take out loans\u2014it\u2019s just done differently than other parts of the world.\u201d Traditional banks don\u2019t offer affordable avenues for customers to borrow money for important costs like healthcare. High interest rates prevent the majority of the population from turning to extant financial systems for help.<\/p>\n

KIWI just celebrated their 10th completed payment plan: Ten individuals fully paid off an agreed amount of funds in a timely manner in order to access health care they wouldn\u2019t otherwise be able to afford\u2014and they’re on their way to twenty. KIWI takes a small commission from the provider once the plan is completed. The goal is to expand to other verticals: education, insurance, business materials, and savings accounts. The ambition for the coming year is to see at least 1,000 payment plans created and paid off, thus stimulating the economy and sometimes, saving lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cA woman with no friends or family needed a surgery and wasn\u2019t able to afford it,\u201d recalls Bay. \u201cWe offered a flexible payment solution and in three months she had paid it off. Later we learned she had contemplated suicide and knowing that we were able to be a part of helping prevent that meant a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of keeping up with the growth means adding more committed staff to communicate directly with the user. This solidifies the human connection\u2014there are faces behind the payment plans.<\/p>\n

Bay dreamt up KIWI while at MIT for his MBA. Like most ventures without a handed down blueprint to work from, there were lots of sleepless nights. \u201cOne thing that worked for me,\u201d recalls Bay, \u201cis believing that if you persevere that something will work.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wanted a solution to provide the population of Mexico with the ability to afford goods and services without the cumbersome nature of bank loans, gimmicks and high interest rates. \u201cWe recognize that financial institutions are hard to trust,\u201d explains Bay. \u201cWe don\u2019t think of ourselves as a financial service company, rather as a solutions company\u2014it\u2019s a specific solution. The way we establish trust is we partner with a service provider and they offer our service to their patient.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BOP wants to save, wants to trust, wants to grow. They only need means to reach their goal<\/i> Tweet This Quote<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

KIWI\u2019s partnerships in the healthcare sector allow patients to obtain life changing surgeries, medicine and treatments they otherwise could not afford. A merchant, clinic or retailer can sign up for KIWI and offer their customers the option to pre-pay for a service through an established technology platform that personalizes affordable payment plans. A user can pay the agreed upon installments in any of the 12,000 convenience stores through Kiwi’s collection partner\u2014the merchant benefits by widening their customer base and increases their sales. \u201cWe don\u2019t charge a fee or commission to the user,\u201d says Bay. \u201cThey only pay the cost of the service. We transfer the funds and charge the commission to the sector or provider.\u201d Kiwi asks for a commission of ten percent based on the completion of the plan.<\/p>\n

Investors often want to know about similar models to KIWI\u2014does anything like it exist? According to Bay, the answer is no: \u201cBanks are falling behind in products and services. They can\u2019t experiment. We can be the front facing service and they can provide back end services that would help in our scaling. We are a new company. It\u2019s hard to decide a perfect marketing strategy without points of reference that already exist. Eventually, we want to incorporate new services like insurance and savings accounts by partnering with banks and other financial institutes.\u201d This approach ensures KIWI can adapt to long term economics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BOP wants to save, wants to trust, wants to grow. They only need means to reach their goal, and KIWI will be one of those tools.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While banks are falling behind in products and services, this startup is providing tailored pre-payment plans in Mexico City that can save lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":16054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[476,1560,1502,1539],"tags":[2247,1451,97,1408,383],"class_list":["post-15995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-economy","category-2014_mexico","category-unreasonable_mexico","tag-article","tag-guest","tag-mexico","tag-profile","tag-starting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA New Financial Platform in Mexico Saves Lives and Money - UNREASONABLE<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/mexico-series-kiwi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A New Financial Platform in Mexico Saves Lives and Money - 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