RuralFintechChallenge

Bringing financial innovation to places it hadn't reached before.

About the Initiative

The Rural Fintech Challenge was developed by Emprende UP in collaboration with Alianza CRECE, an initiative supported by USAID, to explore how fintech solutions could be adapted and implemented in rural communities.

My Role

As Innovation Specialist, I helped shape the program, build the ecosystem around it and coordinate implementation over 22 months.

Lush cacao and coffee-growing territory in the tropical Andean foothills of Huánuco, Peru

It started with...

A challenge that didn't fit the existing model.

Working session with fintech founders and producer organisation representatives around a shared table
Working session with participants

I had just joined Emprende UP when the opportunity arrived.

Until then, much of our work with startups had focused on helping them grow. This challenge reversed the question: instead of creating or incubating new ventures, could we find existing solutions with potential for rural communities and create the conditions for them to work there?

There was no playbook for that.

When the opportunity needed someone willing to take it on, I stepped in.

The challenge went far beyond bringing technology into rural communities with limited access.

Startups would have to enter an unfamiliar context, understand rural users, adapt their solutions and test them in the field.

Technology alone wouldn't be enough.

Around them, we also had to create access and trust: users willing to experiment, producer organizations that could open doors, financial institutions willing to collaborate, and partners that could help the work continue.

The challenge wasn't simply bringing innovation in. It was creating the conditions that would allow it to work.

What I did

I helped turn the idea into something that could actually work.

THE PROGRAMTHE ECOSYSTEMAttract startupsUnderstand usersAdapt solutionsTest in the fieldLearn + refineFind local alliesBuild trustConnect institutionsEnable collaborationCreate support

  1. Build the program

    Structured the path from startup selection to field learning.

  2. Build the ecosystem

    Connected the people and institutions needed around the solutions.

  3. Keep it moving

    Turned learning into decisions, follow-up and next steps.

  • Rural innovation
  • Program design
  • Ecosystem building
  • Stakeholder collaboration
A cacao producer holding a freshly opened cacao pod among cacao trees
Cacao in the field

What it made possible

10 of 12

Startups launched rural pilots

Participating teams developed and began testing financial and digital solutions in the program's target regions.

230

Women entrepreneurs reached

Forty-six lending groups received financing, with 55% of participants entering the financial system for the first time.

≈ $35,800

In loans disbursed

Group-lending pilots demonstrated how digital financial products could reach entrepreneurs in rural communities.

S/139,500

≈ $22,200

In working capital placed

Financing supported local suppliers and agricultural activities in Huánuco.

S/86,500

66

Cooperatives mapped

The program contacted 46 cooperatives, initiated discussions with 10, and supported two agreements involving approximately 940 coffee and cacao producers.

Beyond the pilots

Solutions continued to expand

At least four participating teams applied their products, partnerships or learnings in new regions, markets or value chains after their initial implementation.

Sometimes the most important thing you design isn't the product. It's the system around it that gives the product a chance to work.

A good solution isn't enough. It needs context, trust, relationships and people willing to make room for something new.