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David Poritz, Credijusto: Helping SMEs grow in Latin America, Ep 140 According to David Poritz, over six million SMEs in Mexico have historically lacked access to credit. That’s one of the reasons why in 2015, David decided to build Credijusto, a tech-enabled lender for SMEs in Mexico. David has always been a strong advocate for human rights, founding his own non profit early in his career. In his quest to build a social enterprise that would promote economic development while supporting a good cause, he discovered the power of fintechs and the potential to stimulate growth in emerging markets. I sat down with David to talk about how the SME lending space in Mexico has evolved since 2015 and the impact COVID-19 has had at Credijusto. We also talk about David’s lessons learned from the nonprofit sector and why working with impact investors is such an important part of Credijusto’s trajectory. Going into tech with a social science background Before venturing into tech, David had built an impressive career in the nonprofit sector. He had studied Anthropology and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Brown, which naturally resulted in most of his work being focused on that region. It was during his Master’s in the UK that he observed the first wave of tech enabled lending startups that he became fascinated with the idea of financial inclusion as a concept and began looking into applying these technologies to emerging economies. Learn more about David’s transition into fintech from a social sciences background in this episode of Crossing Borders. Building a startup as non-technical founders David and his co-founder, Allan, wore a variety of different hats when they first started Credijusto. David explains that they had to learn on-the-go about credit risk and underwriting, while also building a tech and commercial team. In hindsight, he realizes how much of a game changer bringing on experienced professionals to the team can be to a company’s growth. Listen to this episode of Crossing Borders to find out more about David’s lessons learned from growing Credijusto’s team. Impact investing with Credijusto David explains that impact investors have been a critical source of capital throughout Credijusto’s trajectory. From early on they wanted to develop a business that had a tangible impact that would improve access to credit and support businesses in their growth. With his background in human rights, David wanted to build a true social enterprise and found that fintechs with a consumer-centric approach checked the boxes. Learn more about David’s perspective on impact investing and financial inclusion in this episode of Crossing Borders. David is empowering entrepreneurs by promoting financial inclusion in Mexico’s SME lending space with Credijusto’s customer-centric solution that truly meets the needs of borrowers. Outline of this episode: [1:56] - About Credijusto [4:48] - Going into tech with a social sciences background [7:12] - A customer-centric approach [9:02] - SME lending in 2015 [11:07] - On getting started [13:09] - Credijusto’s inflection point [15:22] - Growing the team [18:22] - Credijusto and impact investing [21:09] - SME lending space [23:44] - Advice to David’s younger self [25:17] - What’s next for Credijusto? Resources & people mentioned: David Poritz Allan Apoj Pascal Credijusto John Mack Broadhaven Capital Partners Elevar Equity IGNIA Kaszek Ventures QED Investors Point 72 Goldman Sachs Credit Suisse PG Impact Investments Calvert Impact Capital DFC
