This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Financial Revolutionist: What is FinTech Sandbox?

Kelly Fryer: FinTech Sandbox is a nonprofit that provides a leg up for early-stage entrepreneurs all over the world by giving them free access to financial data sets and resources to help build their product. We partner with about 40 different data partners, such as Equifax, Plaid, and TransUnion, who give their free datasets to our vetted startups so that they can test and build their products and get off the ground. To date, we've worked with over 275 startups from all over the world. 

In addition to facilitated access to data, what are the other parts of your work at FinTech Sandbox that help lower barriers?

We try to support our startups through access to business development opportunities. We work with a lot of different corporate partners beyond our data, getting our startups introductions to folks who could potentially become their partners in the future. We also have partnerships with a number of different accelerator programs, so we help them to get referrals into those. 

As we think about inclusion, especially in the startup space, a lot of folks don't have these giant networks that others might. So introductions, while they seem simple, are a really essential aspect of that. FinTech sandbox also hosts a number of different events, so gaining exposure for entrepreneurs and technologies that are focused on the inclusion space get a light shone on them, which helps others see some of the interesting technologies and founders that are popping up in that space.

When deciding whom to accept into the data access residency, do you intentionally look for entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds, or for certain kinds of socially oriented missions?

Our data access residency does naturally attract folks who are from underrepresented backgrounds. And we tend to attract startups that are working on some pretty interesting products, especially those with a direct impact on financial inclusion. 

For example, we just onboarded a startup from Mexico focusing on identity and credit checks in Mexico. Eighty percent of Mexicans don't have credit history, and the reason they don't is because credit history starts with proper identity verification—that leaves so many people out of the lending process or financial systems generally. Through us, this startup can then use credit bureau data and private company data to build out identity verification. That’s one example of many, but generally we help founders who might not traditionally be able to get their company off the ground or get to launch phase. 

Why that global focus, rather than a US-centric one?

Small businesses and startups are what lift up economies and build stronger financial systems, whether that's here in the US, or any other part of the world. That makes for stronger global financial systems; innovative technologies that can impact anyone, anywhere, can come from anyone, anywhere. To limit our data access residency to just the US would be exclusionary to our direct mission, which is to help entrepreneurs succeed and to get off the ground.

Financial inclusion or even what's considered “underserved” varies from country to country. Sometimes we see technologies that already exist and seem obvious to one part of the world then applied to a slightly different market, and it completely automates or creates a whole new financial product that's desperately needed in a different part of the globe. 

Around 75% of the startups that are applying to our program right now are related to either sustainable or inclusive finance in some way. You’re seeing a lot more entrepreneurs that are solving problems that have personally affected them, whether at their job or in their day-to-day life.

Given you have such a wide range of applicant startups working on financial inclusion, have you seen some sort of coherent definition for financial inclusion emerge?

It’s similar to ESG or sustainability—everybody has a slightly different definition, which in some ways makes sense. For us at FinTech Sandbox, we think about financial inclusion being a key piece of sustainable and inclusive finance. It’s using creative technology solutions to reduce barriers and create more affordable financial products and higher quality financial products for everyone, so that you end up with safer, more sustainable, more resilient financial systems. 

You mentioned sustainable and inclusive finance as two lodestars guiding a lot of current applicants. Do you see any trends within that?

I wouldn’t necessarily say that these are trends going into 2023. But I will say there’s a big interest in transparency with private company data, and in better collection and understanding of what's going on with small businesses. This helps for products that are designed specifically for SMBs. 

We also continue to see a lot of interest in alternative credit scores on the personal side, and new types of categories or datasets that can be brought into that to create a unique look at somebody's credit history and a unique way of assessing them. 

And the third is around homeownership and home renting. Whether that means making it easier to make your initial rent deposit, or making it easier to pay your landlords. 

Everybody has different definitions of inclusion. It can seem like this daunting and overly ambitious thing that we’re never going to be able to tackle. But it’s sometimes these seemingly obvious solutions or technologies applied in a new format that can easily bring thousands of people back into financial systems. Sometimes, just removing these small roadblocks can really open up access, and I hope to continue to see more of it.