Insights from research

During the 2012 Financial Services Seed, our team discovered a striking cultural trend. They observed that while over 65% of the Colombian population does not engage with commercial banks, almost all research participants interviewed received informal financial services through trusted people or role models within their social circles.

Business model

Aflore is a direct sales network for financial services for those outside of the formal banking sector. They recruit trusted financial advisors already operating within communities, and mobilize them with training, tools and support to identify quality candidates for loans and financial products within their trusted networks.

Initial challenges

While informal financial advisors exist across Colombia in remarkable numbers, it took time and effort to identify and secure scalable recruitment channels. Traditional marketing and product design didn’t work, as numerous strategies were iterated to achieve activation (the first loan) and sustained engagement over time.

The venture today

Today, Aflore has helped hundreds of people realize their financial aspirations through the disbursement of more than one thousand loans. While steadily increasing maximum loan size, they have been able to maintain late payment and default rates that are well below the market average. Their core team has grown to over twenty members.

What the future holds

With a growing pool of active financial advisors, Aflore is building a true network to empower advisors to share, motivate each other, and grow. They are building mobile technology tools for advisors in the field, as well as working to better understand the needs of their end users — loan recipients, to provide better financial products.