Verification is vital in bridging funding gaps in these markets

Picture this: you’ve developed a groundbreaking startup idea with the potential to revolutionise lives – perhaps even the world. However, if you live in an emerging market, are female, or belong to an underrepresented group such as the unbanked, the odds are stacked against you in securing funding. Underdeveloped funding infrastructure or prevailing biases in existing structures lead to a skewed selection process for funding allocation. So it’s crucial to address these funding disparities in emerging markets.

Consider the South-East Asian markets of Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, where there are many determined entrepreneurs creating startups to improve people’s daily lives. A significant proportion of these are fintech startups, reflecting the region’s demographics: they have many unbanked individuals. My venture, Seedefy, acts as a conduit to these high-impact, high-potential startups in emerging markets. We provide a decentralised marketplace that bridges them with global investors.

We leverage blockchain and smart contracts in alignment with key principles of enterprise blockchain. This allows us to be more transparent, to foster community building, and to expedite scalability. The decentralised nature of our platform reinstates ownership to its active participants, reinforcing a sense of empowerment.

Of course, transparency and due diligence are key. We ensure that participating companies are diligently vetted through our partners or ourselves. We also consistently enquire about their alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This is crucial, as we align these startups with global investors who have specific mandates, underscoring the importance of these development goals.

And we place a strong emphasis on community engagement. Verification is vital in bridging the funding gaps in these markets. Startups in certain regions may pose a higher risk, due to less established governance compared to developed countries.

It can be challenging, for instance, to verify the operation and legal registration of an agritech startup in a remote village. This is where the local community members on the platform become very important – be it local legal professionals, accountants, or industry-specific experts such as farmers. Our goal is to foster local businesses and encourage cross-cultural collaboration while ensuring thorough local-level due diligence. These community members aid in validating the accuracy of the information that startups provide to our platform.

By focusing on the funding gap, we aim to democratise funding through our decentralised ecosystem. There is a lot of great innovation happening in these spaces. Our mission is to propel these brilliant ideas onto the next stage where they can truly make an impact.