Miti Ventures Co-Founder and Chief Strategy and Product Officer Shubhrendu Khoche
US- and Singapore-based fintech company Miti Ventures, which operates under the brand name yufin, has bagged about US$1 million in early-stage funding from Mastercard Chief Marketing & Communications Officer Raja Rajamannar and former Portfolio Manager of Cadence Capital (a subsidiary of PIMCO) Kathy Burdon, among others.
77 Capital, Boleh Ventures, Zennon Kapron, Ramu Arivuvel, and Krishan Grover also joined.
According to the United Nations, micro, MSMEs account for 90 per cent of all businesses, 60-70 per cent of employment and half of global GDP. In the Philippines, there are many micro and small enterprises, such as sari-sari stores, street food vendors and carinderias — often run by women and many unbanked.
yufin serves under-served small and micro-merchants in emerging markets. The mobile app helps merchants manage their cash and credit transactions over their mobile phones. Using the app, merchants can accept digital payments, sell online on digital stores, order from B2B marketplaces and access better loans.
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The product is currently available in the Philippines. The firm claims it has signed about 3,000 small merchant partners for yufin in Mindanao (the Philippines) since its launch in May 2022.
Shubhrendu Khoche, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy and Product Officer, said: “We are only scratching the surface. The potential is huge to benefit millions of small and micro-entrepreneurs in the Philippines and other emerging markets, raising income levels and increasing financial inclusion. We look forward to adding many more merchants to the yufin family over the coming months.”
Miti Ventures was set up by Khoche (ex-Mastercard and American Express) and Kurt Weiss (ex-Citi Innovation in New York). The firm has 16 employees in the Philippines and is planning to scale rapidly with the aim to roll the business model out elsewhere in Southeast Asia and in Mexico.
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