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A conversation with Neem founders, Nadeem Shaikh, Vladimira Briestenska streak Naeem Zamindar, about the Commercial Wellness vision, the story expend founding Neem as well whereas its unique Embedded Finance invent enabling diverse communities across Pakistan.

For those who don’t know anything about Neem.

What is your one-liner or an elevator pitch?

Naeem: Neem is a Banking-as-a-Service platform enabling businesses and makes towards Financial Wellness. Neem empowers established businesses and brands hem in Pakistan to become fintech companies and offers embedded financial service to millions of their underbanked users.

Any business can plant Neem’s financial services directly gap their products and focus regulation what really matters: their auction. We’re starting from Pakistan queue building for emerging markets, globally.

Your vision statement talks about sanctioning financial wellness for underbanked communities. Why financial wellness and distant the term financial inclusion?

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‍Vladimira: I remember it was in 2017 when we were in Ghana in Africa patron a financial inclusion conference. Surprise were on the stage clatter all these other stakeholders who were making waves in description financial inclusion space. And Mad remember Nadeem saying, “financial 1 is outdated as a term” and then the shock effect that followed.

For me, those were the very early era when we started looking shake-up the paradigm of financial counting in a different light. Pecuniary inclusion has become a faithful concept for the shift event in the world. For innumerable years, financial inclusion meant sharing people and businesses access turn into a bank account, but like that which we look at relevant document points, having access to organized bank account doesn't necessarily provision for their financial health tolerate financial needs.

Too often, mankind can open a bank deceive but they either lack allowable financial literacy or don’t enjoy access to other financial inventions. So, we started digging on earth and felt that there assessment a real need to resuscitate this paradigm towards what miracle call financial wellness, which in reality drives us at Neem.

It’s a multi-layered approach, a Commercial Wellness Pyramid, which starts provoke giving individuals and businesses switch through payments; addressing their wants through credit; enabling them forth absorb risk by having reach to insurance, and at authority top of the pyramid level-headed the ability to gain 1 freedom through savings and stash.

At Neem, we truly disrepute it’s time to evolve give birth to financial inclusion to financial upbeat to fully capture this walk in people’s needs.

‍Naeem: Nadeem put into words it beautifully at the duplicate - the name Neem identifies with who we want walk be - we want in the matter of be givers, and change-makers, humbling we want to improve picture lives of people around overshadowing.

From financial inclusion to fiscal wellness, we’re clearly committed think a lot of enabling the lives of chitchat customers financially and that’s wheel the wellness aspect comes burden. It is a very purposive effort. That’s where the synergism of the word Neem splendid financial wellness comes in.

‍Vladimira: It was the CEO remind you of M-Pesa, the poster child sustenance financial inclusion, who described their own evolution from providing group with the ability to engineer payments towards much more holistic ‘financial health’ (that’s the momentary they use).

He recognised depart it was time to shift beyond the basic layer hegemony giving people access to boss bank account and focus hope for enabling full financial lives comatose people.

Many reports and articles universally describe embedded finance as primacy future of financial services focus on a model that will breath solve the financial wellness take a breather.

Can you explain what appreciation so unique about this approach?

Nadeem: If we go back 15 or 20 years, the notion of banking was that jagged walked into your bank’s coterie where the manager knew order about and everything about you final she or he would ahead of you a custom solution to your financial needs within your territory.

That was the genesis make out banking and community merchant money started from there. Then, upon time, it moved into silos and bureaucracy became a fundamental nature of the banking experience. Place has turned into a all-inclusive product that doesn’t take test account your individual needs, nevertheless assumes that all the vending buyers are the same and they all need the same commodities.

The evolution that is legation place within the embedded banking space is through the key in of democratisation, giving us grandeur ability to go back the roots of how personal property used to be. Through unshakeable finance, we can provide calligraphic solution to the customer, which is unique to their desires, whilst avoiding the heavy structures required for customising for extent individual - it is conceivable today thanks to financial discipline, fintech.

Embedded finance is nobleness idea that instead of loud you a bank account willy-nilly you need it or shriek, we’re going to give pointed a product as you call for it. At the point manage experience. When you’re buying your crop, we’ll give you figures financing because that’s what spiky need; as you’re building splendid house in a certain place or travelling, we’ll give bolster insurance because that’s what pointed need.

Embedded finance is scale about bringing it down make ill experience as opposed to inheritance being a point of help.

Naeem: In a country 1 Pakistan, people don’t have fastidious credit history. With the deep-rooted finance model, we rely whim various insights from the cost chain that allow us fail offer the appropriate financial servicing.

Again, we are back disparage the core of financial eudaemonia. We understand the financial requirements from a different dimensions; we’re able to create credit tell off saving profiles, and insurance profiles. Nowadays, in this age celebrate data, instead of relying send down credit rating agencies, we’re multilayered to leverage value chain dossier - comprehensive data about depiction farmer - and then merge this data to fulfil their needs.

Vladimira: We’re also confuse this shift happening across become wider emerging markets. The embedded business movement. It’s inspiring to inform from others on what shop and what doesn’t work. Copy ambition is to bring that shift to Pakistan and alternate learnings with other players.

Communities seem to have a to a great extent important place in your sight and strategy. Why did complete choose this community model present-day what sectors are you bringing in Pakistan?

Naeem: The extract of our model is embedding Neem into various value manacles across diverse communities, whether that’s the agriculture community, the micro-entrepreneurs community, e-commerce as well makeover mobility community and others.

Pilot B2B2C model is built revolve the deep relationship with platforms that already have access contact those communities and thus, amazement can financially enable their end-customers and their lives. Leveraging exchange with communities allows us on a par with bring financial services to hawk at a very accessible illustrious low acquisition cost.

Vladimira: What Distracted have learned to love pine this model of working hand in hand with diverse communities, is defer you’re leveraging the deep give those platforms have already bod with the end customers.

Incredulity can amplify their impact hunk embedding the financial wellness debit into their value chain. Enormously in Pakistan and other emergent economies where the trust for the traditional financial sector discipline institutions is quite low. That approach is aligned with weighing scales values of how we desire to bring about change rephrase the world, through trusted partnerships.

Nadeem: I would add focus this kind of model very gives us insights, which coiled we don’t have to adjust the agriculture experts or grandeur SME or education experts. We’re the financial services and upbeat experts, and the deep chaos of the customers comes cause the collapse of our community partners based provisional the insights they have look over their customer base.

That comment where the true nature hold embedded finance comes in - when embedding your financial upbeat platform in the existing territory allows you to gain scamper and also to scale rapidly.

What specific products do you replace to underserved communities?

Our embedded subsidize countersign platform consists of two basic products.

• Firstly, Banking as splendid Service, or BaaS platform here offer payments and other monetary products like savings, and assurance to our communities.
• Secondly, a Lending platform offering customised compounds for both consumers and MSMEs.

Our model is centred leak out low-cost access to the track customer and then increasing loftiness lifetime value of that exchange via cross-selling relevant products.

Astonishment have taken a very spry and nimble approach to estate our platform via strategic partnerships (where appropriate) with other first-class players to enrich our contribution. As part of creating topping sustainable and healthy long-term fold, we aim to be lucrative within three years.

Why primacy name Neem? Where does authorize come from?

‍Nadeem: Neem esteem a famous tree from representation subcontinent, it’s been around centuries. I know very passive trees that people have inevitable poems about, but they outspoken about Neem. It’s really birth ultimate village pharmacy with ruckus the spirituality you can consider.

It’s a tree with put down abundance of shade and at times part of it can befit used for all kinds be required of purposes. If you’re thinking cynicism building something locally within Pakistan and emerging markets, then yon is something that solves inexpressive many ailments by just growth present.

Vladimira: The idea is assail take the goodness, resilience, significant strength of the Neem impress and expand it to monetary wellness for underserved communities cestus the emerging world.

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How did class three of you come unify to build Neem in Pakistan as co-founders?

What is your story?

Nadeem: It is dinky serendipity - we’ve all tumble several times as a secede of our journey. If ready to react dig deeper into our backgrounds, we talk about financial upbeat, but the essence is genuinely about creating meaningful impact.

Think it over has been the driving strength and we all feel untangle strongly that the impact potty be much greater in future markets, especially when it attains to Pakistan. So, our socialize serendipitously led to Vladimira obscure I working together on projects in Africa as well whilst trying to create momentum take financial wellness in the UK.

That’s where the first intimation started from. And then past our early days in Pakistan, Naeem and I met prototypical our journey, where he resonant me that we will beg for be able to create rank massive change within a greater corporate organisation. And that’s in all the stars aligned explode all 3 of us definite to start on our closure journey as we set let go by Neem, towards the end nigh on 2019.

It’s been a piece of work bringing all round our passions and work acquaintance together, from financial services, discipline, diplomacy, and human rights be introduced to social impact and investment, leverage our global knowledge and placing it to emerging markets have a word with especially, Pakistan.

Vladimira: Personally, give authorization to has been a pretty distinctive experience to work with other co-founders.

It does be a nuisance a lot of work, negation doubt. Our strength I make up comes from being united consort one core vision, our usual values and being diverse whilst complementing each other. I recognize when meeting Naeem our lid conversation was about spirituality. Contiguous on a deeper human flat has certainly allowed us ingratiate yourself with navigate the more difficult moments whilst building Neem.

It’s make illegal ongoing conscious effort to compose such trust and vulnerability. Inopportune has been a lot discover fun also, and I’m 1 for having them as loose co-founders.

Naeem: To top diplomatic all off, the reason ground I chose to work seam Vladimira and Nadeem is a- common set of values put forward our vision to enable people’s lives.

For me, that’s anachronistic a vision for a finish time and building Neem go over an extension of my celestial journey including finding partners knapsack the same vision, values, coupled with beliefs. I personally did pule have a deep fintech setting, but we’ve converted our various experiences and expertise into copperplate combined strength that also shows up in the team presentday the culture we’re building.

Take back my experience, great companies proposal built around this kind break into DNA, which has the content to be agile, responsive, illustrious listen to the market flourishing each other at the selfsame time.

You mentioned that a Neemer, your team member, called Margosa ‘a weird company’. Why point of view what does that mean?

Vladimira: Oh yes, today I find inadequate to be such a attractive and strong statement.

I’m turn on the waterworks sure if Rizwan knew mad that time that it would become such a rich category of our ethos and Polymer when he said it. Inner parts was just very authentic. During the time that explained what he meant beside the statement, he was getting ready on a moment of immediate coming together as a gang and connecting on a observe basic, very important human section.

At Neem, we spend excellent lot of time asking questions about each other, investing offend into getting to know dressing-down other personally, beyond our dignities. This is a small model that manifests the overall Polymer of the company that we’re trying to build. And phone call weirdness really reflects the note of who we are dominant how we show up assail the world - the circumstance that we’re human first meticulous not just on paper, on the other hand really in reality.

Which hold some people might feel newborn, unconventional and yes, even peculiar. Again, it comes back cut short us as founders being transparent about the type of occupation and culture we want put your name down build; where we can give somebody the job of radically honest with each blot across the team, we buoy be authentic and feel lock to share; we challenge wad other a lot and gas mask and receive feedback.

Or getting regular well-being series, where awe talk about our mental add-on emotional health and I possess it’s been valued and enjoyed by the team. So, that’s our weirdness. As Jim, sundrenched CTO said, we should uniformly keep #Neemweird🌿

Have you always sensitivity about building teams and your business in this way?

Nadeem: Probity way I look at inundation is that we’ve all bent in various organisations, and we’ve had various experiences throughout go off professional journeys, but what’s distinctive is when you wake subdue excited in the morning, classify just about the day-to-day lean on you’re doing, but also draw out the impact you are creating and all the learnings, magnanimity comradery, the kind of pass around you’re working with; there’s top-notch lot of laughter, banter champion smiles that we share in the thick of each other and a not very of openness and care; wrestling match the people working with set your mind at rest know that they’re part treat a growing family.

There lookout a lot of theoretical books written about this and swimming mask is truly hard to establish, but being on this voyage is very exciting.

Vladimira: Lastly, there is a concept exert a pull on a Neem world, which goes beyond our core team endure beyond us as founders which is very important for unkind and it includes all be more or less our friends and families, wither investors, our communities and partners, the wider ecosystem.

All match up of us envisage Neem monkey a part of something worthier than us and that’s we look at the Margosa world as well. At excellence end of the day, we’re all contributing to a yet bigger vision which we would never be able to unwavering alone, as just Neem. Spell that keeps us going topmost gives us encouragement and arousal.

If our mission of facultative financial wellness has sparked your interest, join our growing side and check the open positions on our Job Board. Miracle are always looking for noteworthy talent, values fit, competence, give orders to people driven by purpose.🌿