In Mexico, more than 20 million people buy things on credit in neighborhood stores.

This trust-based credit system, which grants small loans for short terms, without requiring any collateral, has become the only financial support for millions of low-income Mexicans who do not have any support from banks.

BRIEF:

Financial inclusion is one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the financial sector is primarily responsible for carrying out this work. WeCapital paid attention to this and asked us to work on an idea that would allow us to include more Mexicans in the financial system.

OBJECTIVES:

•To help more than 49 million Mexicans to have access to credit for food.

•To include more than 53% of the country's unbanked adults to a financial system.

•To reduce the country's financial inclusion lag within 5 years.

•To support the financial sector's and the government's efforts for providing access to banking services.

More than 49 million Mexicans do not earn enough to feed their families. So they have to ask for small credits for food in neighborhood stores with the promise to pay at the end of the month. This trust-based credit system has been the only financial support for millions of unbanked families for years.

However, these small stores only have the capacity to lend to a few neighbors, so we created a larger system that can use the same credit system to lend to an entire country.

WeCapital, seeking financial inclusion in Mexico, created: The E-commerce of Trust, an online neighborhood store where you can buy food on credit like in the neighborhood stores: without bank cards, without guarantors and with only one guarantee: trust.

Mexico is one of the 5 least banked countries in the world, according to Forbes 2023. Both government and financial institutions have failed to provide access to financial services to improve the quality of life.

The underlying reason is that people do not trust banks. Therefore, before seeking to increase the number of banked people, we must seek to increase the number of people who trust banks.

Our strategy, before focusing on getting clients for the financial sector, is focused on gaining the confidence of Mexicans.

November 2021 to June 2023: The E-commerce of Trust research and development.

August 2023 to September 2023: First pilot test in a location in Mexico City.

October 2023: We selected the first 15 partner stores for product redemption.

November 2023: We started a communication campaign in 20 locations in Mexico City in media such as phone calls, WeCapital's own channels and geolocation advertising.

December 2023: The E-commerce of Trust reaches its first 1,000 registered beneficiaries.

December 2023 to January 2024: We initiated a PR campaign to amplify the launch of the E-commerce of Trust in different media outlets nationwide.

January 2024: We managed to increase the number of partner stores in Mexico City to 60.

March 2024: We reached 9,500 beneficiaries of the E-commerce of Trust, registering the download of 15,000 coupons for product redemption in partner stores.

●More than 9,500 unbanked families have benefited from the platform, generating more than 15,000 coupons downloaded to claim groceries in partner stores.

●The E-commerce of Trust has 60 partner stores in 20 locations in Mexico City.

●Since 2023, WeCapital has provided 9,500 food loans via the platform, Accounting for half of the financial company's historical loans.

●We have loaned up to 700 Mexican pesos in products for each family.

●To date, the platform has 7,700 active users who have paid on time and continue to request food credits.

●72,000 basic food products have been delivered to 9,500 beneficiary families.