Old Mutual is looking for start-ups that have proven experience distributing financial and/or other products and services to the informal sector and/or experience collecting money from said group of people at low or zero fees. 

Key criteria includes: 

1. Low or close to zero fees. (Less than 3% would be desirable)  

2. Collection must be frictionless – the less parties involved the better, and must be easily accessible for customers. 

3. Collections should be on an ad-hoc basis with no or very low minimums. 

4. Access to customers is key.  This solution must be scalable, therefore a large distribution network (or working with a large distributor) across Southern Africa is necessary. 

Our goal is to find a solution to the problem that exist in distributing financial services products to this market segment as well as collect payment for these services on an ongoing basis.  

Reasons this market has not been sufficiently served:

1. The informal sector is primarily a cash based market. 

2. Trust is a very important in these communities 

3. The cost to serve, especially using traditional models like face-to-face distribution, have proven to be costly 
4.  informal market is characterized by low literacy levels and specifically low financial literacy levels. As such, the market still prefers some human interaction.

The challenge is therefore, to find a viable formula that combines a digitally enabled interaction.