ACCION’s Frontier Investment Group & Elevar Equity Invest $2m in GloboKasNet

Microfinance Focus, Sep 7, 2010: ACCION International, through its Frontier Investment Group, and Elevar Equity, a global equity investor, have today announced an investment of $2 million in GloboKasNet (GKN), a cashless payment solution designed to expand financial inclusion for the poor in developing nations.

GKN, headquartered in Chevy Chase, MD, recruits, trains and equips its KasNet Agents—a network of independent merchants that includes general stores, pharmacies, and hardware stores— with a point of sale (POS) device that enables them to perform all the functions of a bank teller or ATM machine using their own cash.

GKN shares a mutually beneficial relationship with its partner microfinance institutions (MFIs), in which GKN is able to recruit KasNet Agents from among the MFIs’ top clients, while the MFIs are able to reward their best clients with a new source of revenue.  GKN is currently providing services to ACCION’s Peruvian partner, Mibanco, as well as to four other commercial financial institutions, including BBVA, through its wholly owned GKN Peru subsidiary.

According to GKN co-founder and CEO Gino Picasso, “What differentiates GKN from past efforts at electronic payments is the personal touch we provide through the KasNet agent.  We believe it’s the people combined with the technology that will allow us to realize the vision of expanding electronic payments and eliminate the costly inefficiencies of managing cash transactions.” 

ACCION’s Frontier Investment Group is an early stage equity fund that invests in breakthrough technologies and disruptive business models that can enhance the way financial services are delivered to the poor.  Monica Brand, fund manager for Frontier Investments, said, “Innovative payment systems such as GKN’s lie at the heart of our mandate – to bring groundbreaking technologies to the traditional microfinance business model and radically reduce the cost of expanding financial inclusion.” 

Elevar Equity is an equity investor focused on the underserved in emerging economies such as India, Mexico, Peru and Brazil.  To date, the firm has made investments in companies that serve over eight million households at the base of the economic pyramid. According to Elevar Equity co-founder and managing director Maya Chorengel, “GKN’s world-class team has created one of the most elegant payment models at work in the emerging markets.  GKN is registering increasing transaction volume from its MFI and banking clients and their end customers in Peru, proving that focus on delivering workable solutions to the poor is met with positive results”.

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