Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are an important engine of economic growth missing from many developing countries where limited access to financial services severely restricts their capacity to grow and prosper. Without loans, credit, savings and payments services to create, maintain and expand their businesses, small businesses and microenterprises are unlikely to create jobs or take advantage of new economic opportunities.

A critical obstacle that must be overcome to successfully connect small firms to financial services and capital is the general lack of information that small firms are able to provide financial institutions about their operations. As predominantly cash-based businesses, most small firms are unable to produce the data financial institutions need to adequately assess risk and determine suitable terms and conditions.

MPOWER Mobile plans to solve this problem with a mobile software application called YAP Accept that can turn any cell phone into a Point of Sale (POS) system capable of accepting credit and debit card payments. By linking a reloadable debit card to the entrepreneur’s mobile phone, he/she is able to accept payments through the SMS interface and the money is then credited to the debit account.  For example, a residential painter equipped with YAP Accept can receive payments for his job using YAP Accept.  The money is loaded into his debit account which he can then use to purchase the supplies needed for the job. With this powerful and simple solution, micro-entrepreneurs anywhere in the world will be able to expand their customer base, reduce the cost of doing business, document their transaction history and develop a logged cash flow they can use to demonstrate their credit-worthiness.

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MPOWER Mobile is an international mobile applications company dedicated to empowering underserved consumers. The company specializes in developing breakthrough solutions that harness the ubiquity and reach of the mobile phone and universal functionality like text messaging to reach previously inaccessible markets with new and needed services.

MPOWER Mobile’s current development efforts focus on expanding financial services availability with the YAP family of products, a set of financial products and payment solutions consumers around the world can access from any mobile handset to send money, accept credit and debit card payments, and make purchases.

Based in Austin, Texas, MPOWER Mobile is backed by MPOWER Ventures and receives operational support from MPOWER Labs, the venture fund and affiliated business accelerator founded by Roy and Bertrand Sosa, leading voices for underserved consumers and accomplished entrepreneurs who pioneered the multi-billion-dollar prepaid debit market. MPOWER Mobile is one of six portfolio companies run by likeminded entrepreneurs who share a commitment to building a more inclusive global financial system that reaches those currently excluded from access to basic financial services, more than 2 billion people worldwide.

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