Mastercard Strive | Colombia
Boosting the resilience of small businesses and giving them more opportunities to grow and succeed
Our Focus
The Mastercard Strive Colombia program, funded by Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and implemented by Fundacion Capital and other local partners, is designed to support small businesses with digitalization and capital needs.
Our Approach
We help small businesses overcome common challenges:
Get capital
Many available credit options aren't fit for purpose for small businesses. We use data and behavioral science to build the capabilities of fintechs, banks, and micro-finance institutions so that they can develop more innovative financial solutions with the aim to improve small businesses' financial resilience and address their income volatility challenges.
Go digital
We connect small businesses with mission-driven technology partners and unlock access to essential digital tools that will help them eliminate bottlenecks, gain efficiencies, and access new markets.
Grow networks and know-how
Working at the ecosystem level, we are aligning with other key initiatives that are expanding access to financial services in Colombia. Strive Colombia will share insights, tools, and approaches with key public, private, and community-based actors to further amplify our impact.
Our Goal
Supporting over 80,000 small businesses in Colombia over the next two years
By the Numbers
Our Programs
Featured Program
Datasketch: Equipping Colombian small businesses with tools to harness the power of their own data
Using an AI-powered chatbot designed to deliver crucial information, along with charts and maps, directly via chat
Colombia
Open Contracting Partnership: Government contracts made accessible for small businesses
Using open data to seamlessly connect small businesses awarded government contracts with financial institutions who can offer them credit
Colombia
Our Partners
Luz Magdalena Salas
Principal Investigator, Small Firm Diaries
Resilience remains a key concern for MSEs following the pandemic. Rising inflation, value chain disruptions, uneven digitalization, and cash flow volatility all combine to drive business instability. Strive Colombia seeks to address two of these key concerns - income volatility and uneven digitalization.
