Moneta raises US $ 325K towards financial inclusion

Moneta, a lifestyle-based financial service enabler and the first start-up in Sri Lanka invested in by Google, recently closed its Seed II funding round, raising US $ 325,000, at a valuation of US $ 1.25 million. 

This funding round was led by Canadian strategy investment group Remitbee, Vel Investment Holdings and Digital Mobility Solutions Lanka.

Moneta CEO Shayanthan Kanaganayagham stated, “We’re happy to have surpassed our own goals for this round of funding. Now, our focus is to upgrade our digital platform to move forward in our mission to increase financial inclusion in Sri Lanka and the South East Asian region.”

At present, banks in Sri Lanka rely on the Credit Information Bureau (CRIB) as the major source to assess a customer’s creditworthiness. However, this creditworthiness depends on the availability of the existing data of credit usages as a means of establishing trust.

As per Kanaganayagham, “The information provided by the CRIB uses data within the banking system. However, a vast population in Sri Lanka is not included, being among the informal sector employment category. By expanding beyond the banking system, financial institutions can utilise several other factors for informed lending decisions.”Kanaganayagham outlined that Moneta uses AI to determine social trustworthiness and customer credit risks. Accordingly, Moneta can use this to help customers improve their credit scores and create a more financially inclusive society.

In addition to receiving instant loans through the platform, Moneta offers other credit products, such as buy now, pay later schemes and EMI payments for lifestyle purchases. Furthermore, the app reminds users of upcoming payments to minimise mistakes that affect their credit score.

When the pandemic struck, Moneta’s operation was drastically hit and Kanaganayagham explained that the team worked on updating their machine learning models to adjust for previously unseen factors.  “For the well-being of our customers, we provided them a debt moratorium during this challenging time, in line with the guidelines set out by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and ensured a customer-centric approach.”

“The assessment system at Moneta cuts down the expensive traditional process of risk assessment and brings benefits to the people by making credits cheaper through lower credit serving costs,” conveyed Kanaganayagham.
Thus, Moneta’s data-driven approach to lending results in financial institutions, speeding up the process of approving credit and making capital accessible to more individuals to build a better life. With this, a boost to the economy is to be expected by adopting the Moneta credit system for other sectors such as insurance, healthcare and employment.

As of September 2021, Moneta has over 65,000 registered users on the platform and sees a recovery rate of 96.45 percent. 

“This figure is a clear indication that we are headed in the right direction by outperforming traditional banks in terms of our NPL ratio,” Kanaganayagham expressed.