MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Cívico of Colombia Launches “Negocios” App to Help MSMEs Advertise, Sell, Maintain Customer Relationships Online

Cívico, a Colombia-based online marketplace, networking and loan platform for micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), recently launched a mobile app called Negocios that allows users to “create a digital presence for their businesses, upload and sell their products, and connect with their clients.” Cívico also is using the app to collect data on the MSMEs’ interactions with their customers “to identify how to better use alternative data for credit scoring, improve [Cívico’s] direct lending product, and… provide a multi-partner flexible lending product….”

CEO Ricardo Pombo of Cívico stated, “The constant development of digital tools allows us to address our clients’ needs and is instrumental to fulfilling our purpose of generating digital and financial inclusion, and by doing such, we support our clients’ economic reactivation” following the downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Accion Global Advisory Solutions, a division of US-based nonprofit Accion that is active in microfinance and financial technology, supported the development of the app with “client capability building for 12,000 merchants, …strategy definition, product development, scorecard modeling, piloting, launching and monitoring.”

Founded in 2012, Cívico operates in Chile, Colombia and Mexico. Through a pandemic-recovery program launched in 2020 with the city of Bogota, MSMEs used Cívico’s systems to: (1) offer 40,000 products, generating USD 250,000 in sales as of 2021; and (2) disburse 800 loans worth a total of USD 120,000. Company-wide the firm reports serving 35,000 MSMEs and 4 million of their customers.

Founded in 1961, Accion is a nonprofit that seeks to alleviate poverty by offering services such as microenterprise loans and business training. The organization partners with 110 microfinance institutions (MFIs), providing financial services to entrepreneurs in 50 countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia. The NGO also conducts research via the Center for Financial Inclusion and invests via Accion Venture Lab, Accion Global Investments and Accion Frontier Investments. As of 2019, Accion reports total assets of USD 433 million.

By Harriet Ritchie, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Accion press release
https://www.accion.org/civico-announces-launch-of-merchant-assessment-tool-that-will-enhance-its-customized-digital-lending-platform

Cívico homepage
https://www.civico.com/

Negocios app on Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.civiconegocios.app&hl=es_CL

Accion 2019 financials
https://content.accion.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2019-ACCION-International-and-Subsidiaries-FS.pdf

LinkedIn profile on Cívico
https://www.linkedin.com/company/civico-com/

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