Lioness Pitch Profile / Start-Up Night Africa, The Hague, 2025
Marthe Paauwe is the founder of Money Phone BV, a Dutch Fintech founded in 2018 that provides fast, affordable, and transparent loans to MSMEs, students, and smallholder farmers. Using AI credit scoring and mobile platforms, they empower the unbanked with inclusive access to credit; anytime, anywhere. Through MoneyPhone Africa, they aim to provide access to finance through their advanced technology, empowering rural communities in Rwanda and beyond while keeping costs minimal.
“Our loans really turn survival into growth. Farmers are becoming entrepreneurs. Women are becoming leaders.” — Marthe Paauwe
Contact
Marthe Paauwe, founder, MoneyPhone BV (Netherlands)
Website: www.moneyphoneafrica.com
Pitch Summary
Marthe Paauwe, CEO and co-founder of Money Phone, argues that a true fintech revolution means universal inclusion, illustrated by Lucy, a Rwandan farmer who grew from a €70 loan to a €1,700 business-backed loan, gaining income and leadership. Despite fintech growth, 2 billion people remain underbanked—especially women, refugees, youth, and smallholder farmers—due to collateral, distance, and paper-based processes, with Rwandan farmers often deemed too risky. Money Phone addresses this by offering collateral-free, cooperative-guaranteed seasonal loans with five-day disbursement, harvest-aligned repayment, AI-based credit scoring using production and sales data, digital onboarding, and field officers providing financial and digital literacy. In two years post-license, they reached nearly 8,000 farmers with sub-5% NPLs, >50% quarterly portfolio growth, and expanded into green finance for clean cooking and solar irrigation, delivering lower costs and rates by cutting intermediaries and leveraging local social structures.
Pitch Video