The US-based nonprofit Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) recently announced that it will focus exclusively on “catalytic data initiatives” in financial technology (fintech), digital finance and agricultural finance. The NGO will stop adding to its MIX Market dataset, which includes financial and social-impact data from about 2,000 microfinance institutions (MFIs) and funders, as it transitions that database to the World Bank’s Data Catalog. On that platform, the MIX Market data, which includes 15 years of statistics on MFIs, will become available at no charge.
As part of its new focus on agricultural finance, MIX has collaborated with the 12-member Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance (CSAF), whose members invest USD 700 million yearly into agricultural enterprises, to analyze their allocation of capital and launch the CSAF Open Data Portal.
MIX’s intersecting focus areas of fintech and digital finance include elements such as client-facing products that leverage mobile devices, back-office technology for managing microfinance institutions, new technology-based business models, and entirely new types of organizations that are providing financial services. As part of this work, MIX inaugurated its Inclusive Fintech 50 competition to develop methods of evaluating and increasing the visibility of fintechs seeking to promote responsible financial inclusion.
Camilla Nestor, the CEO of MIX, said, “I am excited about this sector-wide push toward de-siloed data and collaboration…. We are honored to work closely with funders, investors and financial service providers committed to building transparency in, and unlocking capital for, inclusive financial services.”
As of early 2018, MIX had annual revenue of USD 2.2 million.
By Anna Gravois, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
Direct contact with MIX staff
MIX press release
https://www.themix.org/news/announcement/new-chapter-mix-two-shifts-greater-impact
MIX homepage
https://www.themix.org
GuideStar profile on MIX
https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2018/364/502/2018-364502299-106c7096-9.pdf
World Bank homepage
https://www.worldbank.org
World Bank Data Catalog
https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/
CSAF Open Data Portal
https://data.csaf.org
Inclusive Fintech 50 Winners
https://www.inclusivefintech50.com/winners
Did you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at http://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.
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