Serving Filipino consumers and businesses remains the core of Cashalo’s mission as it celebrates its first year of operations, says general manager Hamilton Angluben.
Launched in May 2018 and designed around the principles of inclusion, responsibility, and transparency, the financial technology firm is committed to improving the lives of Filipinos by empowering them with the tools and knowledge to nurture their financial well-being.
“We are building a new equitable financial services infrastructure that unlocks economic opportunity for millions of unbanked and underserved Filipino consumers and businesses,” says Angluben.
With more than 77 percent of Filipinos remaining unbanked and over 90 percent of adults with no access to a credit bureau, Cashalo saw an unprecedented opportunity to build solutions to help accelerate financial inclusion.
The company uses alternative data to help more Filipinos build financial identities using their mobile devices and contribute to the local economy.
In just a year, Cashalo has already helped more than 1.3 million Filipinos build a financial identity. The company continues to see rapid growth, with the Cashalo app in the phones of more than 3 million users and counting.
The company’s proprietary technology uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and anti-fraud algorithms to analyze a mix of traditional and non-traditional data to score those who were previously ‘credit-invisible’.
The data-driven approach to credit scoring removes unconscious biases and creates a level playing field for every Filipino, who have been undervalued and ignored by traditional financial institutions, regardless of their historical or current economic situation.
The Cashalo app’s suite of financially inclusive products was designed specifically for underserved and unbanked Filipinos and MSMEs. With offline and online components, the product suite is purpose-built to serve consumers wherever they may be. From the app, consumers can apply for digital credit and cash loans and receive a decision within minutes through a fast, easy, and convenient process.
Cashacart, its flagship product was introduced in November 2018 and continues to be the Philippines’ first and only true offline-to-online (O2O) basket financing solution that is setting the standard for offline consumer financing. Its unique offering enables consumers to shop for a “basket of goods” and pay later via digital credit across Cashalo’s network of over 300 merchant partner locations.
“At Cashalo, we believe in creating value for our consumers and merchant partners. While other companies focus on financing products, we use technology to finance people and help them build a strong credit profile,” says Angluben.
“Our focus is on designing solutions that improve lives and contribute to socio-economic growth,” he says.
Financial education is imperative to Cashalo’s mission to improve the lives of every Juan and accelerate financial inclusion in support of the BSP’s own efforts through its National Strategy for Financial Inclusion.
Cashalo is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oriente, a Hong Kong-headquartered technology and data-science company committed to financial inclusion in emerging Asia.
