Fintech for the People Season 8, Episode 5 featuring Sheryar Bawany, Co-founder and CEO of Trukkr

Amee Parbhoo, Managing Partner of Accion Ventures, welcomes Trukkr’s Co-founder and CEO, Sheryar Bawany, to the podcast this week for an in- depth discussion of Pakistan's $35 billion road freight market, an industry critical to the economy yet held back by manual processes and financial instability. Sheryar begins by recounting his unique journey from banking to becoming a trucker himself, an experience that gave him a firsthand look at the severe pain points in the industry. This led to the creation of Trukkr, a platform designed to solve these deep-rooted challenges by merging logistics technology with embedded finance.

Sheryar explains the critical cash flow challenges that keep small truck owners "constantly broke," trapped in a cycle of high upfront costs and long payment delays. Trukkr tackles this by providing essential working capital and digitizing the entire supply chain. For corporate shippers, the platform offers unprecedented transparency, efficiency, and data analytics, transforming a chaotic, paper-based system into a streamlined digital workflow. For truckers, it provides access to fair and timely financing, breaking their dependence on high-interest loan sharks. Sheryar’s vision is for Trukkr to become the central ecosystem for the industry, making logistics in Pakistan more efficient and financially inclusive for everyone involved.

Episode highlights:

• Digitizing Pakistan's massive, yet inefficient, road freight and logistics industry.
• Addressing the critical working capital and cash flow challenges faced by small truck owners.
• Providing corporate shippers with transparency, data analytics, and operational efficiencies.
• Streamlining the entire logistics process, from sourcing trucks to invoicing and payment.
• Integrating embedded finance to provide truckers with access to capital and insurance products.
• Overcoming adoption hurdles in a traditionally manual and price-sensitive market.
• Creating a digital ecosystem that benefits both shippers and carriers.
• The future of truck-tech and the importance of a combined technology and finance model.

To learn more about Trukkr, visit their website. Learn more about Accion Ventures on our website and LinkedIn.

Cultivating Prosperity: Verqor Aims to Revolutionize Agricultural Finance in Mexico

Fintech for the People Season 8, Episode 4 featuring Valentina Rogacheva, Co-founder of Verqor

Amee Parbhoo, Managing Partner of Accion Ventures, sits down with Valentina Rogacheva, Co-founder of Verqor, to explore the ways her company is tackling the significant gap in financial services for Mexico’s agricultural sector. Valentina shares the journey of identifying the deep-seated challenges farmers face, from the inefficiencies of traditional banking to the lack of products tailored to their needs. She explains how these obstacles push farmers towards informal credit and limit their potential for growth and economic mobility.

Valentina details Verqor’s innovative fintech model, designed specifically for the agricultural ecosystem. By offering cashless, digital credit that can only be used for approved agricultural inputs, Verqor ensures the financing is used productively. She discusses their B2B2C strategy, partnering with crop buyers and retailers to mitigate risk, gathering crucial data for their alternative credit scoring model, and creating a transparent, resilient supply chain. Verqor’s approach not only results in an impressively low default rate but also embeds services like climate insurance, empowering farmers to increase their yields, adopt sustainable practices, and achieve greater financial stability.

Episode highlights:

• Addressing the financial exclusion of small and medium size farmers in rural Mexico.
• Providing fast, accessible, and cashless digital credit tailored for the agricultural sector.
• Embedding finance within the agricultural supply chain through a B2B2C model.
• Mitigating risk and maintaining low default rates through strategic partnerships with crop buyers and suppliers.
• Ensuring the productive use of credit by restricting it to the purchase of high-quality agricultural inputs.
• Promoting higher yields, increased income, and sustainable farming practices through better inputs and climate insurance.
• Building and motivating a team that bridges the gap between the traditionally non-digital agriculture industry and the innovative world of fintech.
• The future vision for Verqor as a comprehensive financial partner for the entire agricultural value chain.

To learn more about Verqor, visit their website. Learn more about Accion Ventures on our website and LinkedIn.

Fintech for the People Season 8, Episode 3 featuring Neal Thakker, Founder and CEO of Magma

Neal Thakker, Founder and CEO of Magma, joins Amee Parbhoo, Managing Partner of Accion Ventures, on the podcast this week for an exploration of  the massive opportunity that exists to modernize India's current manufacturing sector. Against the backdrop of a global supply chain shift, Neal explains how Indian factories are poised for huge growth but are often held back by traditional, inefficient practices. He shares his journey from working in supply chain management to founding Magma, a comprehensive platform designed to solve the core operational and financial challenges facing small and medium size factories.

Neal details how Magma functions as an end-to-end industrial solutions provider, moving beyond a simple marketplace model. The platform seeks to address critical pain points by bundling services like specialty raw material procurement, green energy solutions, waste management, and logistics. By embedding finance directly into these workflows, Magma helps factories overcome issues like blocked working capital and rigid minimum order quantities. This integrated approach not only improves day-to-day operations but also tackles the biggest challenge for any factory owner: improving capacity utilization. Looking ahead, Neal discusses his vision for expanding Magma's embedded finance offerings to include smarter credit underwriting and innovative insurance products tailored for the manufacturing industry.

Episode highlights:

• The emergence of opportunities for India's manufacturing sector.
• Solving the key challenges for small and medium sized factories: unreliable supply chains, blocked working capital, and a lack of digitization.
• Magma’s model of bundling diverse services, from raw materials to waste management, - to become an integrated part of a factory’s operations.
• Using embedded finance to eliminate restrictive minimum order quantities and free up cash flow.
• Focusing on capacity utilization as the most critical metric for a factory's success.
• Building relationships that foster trust and drive digital adoption in a traditional industry.
• The future of embedded finance in manufacturing, including smarter underwriting and tailored insurance products.
• Building resilient teams by prioritizing deep industry expertise for key operational roles.
• Transforming India's industrial backbone to compete on a global scale.

To learn more about Magma, visit their website. Learn more about Accion Ventures on our website and LinkedIn.