Mastercard and Boost Capital announce partnership to support over 10,000 small businesses in the Philippines

• With a focus on women-led enterprises, the partnership will enable their access to digital financial services and impart financial literacy.
• It is set to scale Boost Capital’s proven technology for financial service providers in the Philippines to better meet the needs of underserved small businesses.

Mastercard today announced a philanthropic partnership with technology provider, Boost Capital, with the aim of unlocking access to digital financial services for over 10,000 small businesses, especially women-led enterprises, in the Philippines. This new partnership – supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – will leverage technology to enable access to capital, knowledge and resources for Filipino small enterprises.

The program follows a previous partnership between the two organizations in Cambodia that showcased how digital onboarding channels, paired with greater financial literacy, can de-risk and expand lending to small businesses. This program in the Philippines will leverage learnings and insights from Cambodia and facilitate financial service providers to broaden access to digital financial services by improving merchant onboarding and extending financial literacy training to their small business customers.

“The results from our partnership in Cambodia clearly demonstrated the value that pairing credit with capacity building can have on unlocking capital for underserved small businesses. By building on that work, our aim is to empower more small businesses in the Philippines and facilitate their transition to the digital economy,” said Shamina Singh, Founder and President of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.

Boost Capital’s award-winning, white-labeled tech platform onboards small businesses leveraging familiar channels such as Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and WhatsApp, which Filipino entrepreneurs are already using. Integrated with AI, the company’s chat-based technology allows service providers to onboard more small business customers digitally. Once onboarded, small businesses can access financial services 24/7 from their smartphones. The entire process is automated, from product selection, through AI-driven verification, to contracting and disbursement.

With funding from Mastercard Strive, an initiative under the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, Boost Capital will collaborate with financial service providers in the Philippines to use this technology to bring more female small business owners into the formal financial ecosystem and provide them with services to support and grow their businesses.

In addition to broadening access to financial services, the program will build the capacity of small business owners to support their long-term financial health through chat-based financial education interwoven throughout their financial service lifecycle. Previous work in Cambodia demonstrated that small businesses who received financial education were 8 percent more likely to repay loans on time.

“We are excited to be working with Mastercard Strive to unlock and expand credit for Filipino small businesses. This new grant will extend our technology to a wider set of partners and de-risk its adoption by smaller financial service providers, who might otherwise be hesitant to go digital. Encouraging them to explore new client onboarding channels will unlock access to a wealth of digital financial services to support small business growth,” said Lucinda Revell, Co-Founder of Boost Capital.

Mastercard Strive is a portfolio of philanthropic programs aimed at helping small businesses worldwide thrive in the digital economy. Collectively, they aim to support more than 10 million small businesses globally.

“Micro and small businesses are vital engines of economic growth across the world, including in the Philippines. By fostering digital inclusion – one of the country’s strategic development priorities – this partnership with Boost Capital will provide much-needed support to Filipino small businesses and empower them to thrive. Further, by focusing on women-led enterprises, this partnership can help address the barriers faced by women entrepreneurs, enabling them to unlock their full potential. This latest collaboration deepens Mastercard’s commitment to the Philippines, driving social impact in a locally relevant way, while supporting the country's efforts to digitizing and growing small businesses, and advancing inclusive growth,” said Simon Calasanz, Country Manager for the Philippines, Mastercard.

Mastercard’s efforts have positively impacted over 1 million micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the Philippines. Globally, Mastercard is committed to bringing 1 billion people and 50 million micro and small businesses into the digital economy by 2025. As part of this effort, the organization has provided 27 million women entrepreneurs with solutions that can help them grow their businesses since 2020, surpassing its goal of 25 million by 2025.

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Background: The micro- and small business landscape in the Philippines

The Philippines is one of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia, and the Philippine financial services sector is experiencing steady growth, driven by a rising population, increasing disposable income, and positive government initiatives promoting financial inclusion. However, the sector still faces challenges including a large unbanked small business population, and limited access to financial products, especially in rural areas.  Micro and small enterprises in the Philippines make up about 99 percent of businesses operating in the Philippines and contribute to around 58 percent of the country’s total employment [1].  Despite their significant role, small businesses in the region continue to face challenges in accessing credit due to high transaction costs and insufficient credit information [2]. Yet across the board, from regulators to large commercial banks to small rural banks and fintechs, financial service providers want to address the financing needs of underbanked small businesses.