Episode 17

The financial super app for the 2.5 million agribusinesses feeding Africa | Shalom Ben Or, Co-Founder and CEO at Avenews-GT

My guest today is Shalom Ben Or, Co-founder and CEO at Avenews. Avenews is building the first financial super app for the agriculture industry catering for the 2.5 million agriculture SMEs across Sub-Saharan Africa. They empower businesses with access to capital and tools that allow them to understand and mange their business better, and source all the business services they need – all in one place.

In today’s episode, we discuss why FinTech in agriculture matters, the pain points in the sector, and why solving problems in product is not enough, instead we should focus on value. Shalom has an impressive mindset and has created a collaborative high performance culture so we also deep dive into his mind.

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Let’s dive into it!

👉 You can find Shalom here

👉 And you can find Monica here:

If you enjoy this Purpose Driven FinTech episode it would mean the world if you subscribe and give it a follow so that we can have more impact. Remember to connect in YouTube or LinkedIn to keep the conversation going.

We cover:

(0:01:19) Underwriting capabilities and providing capital to agriculture businesses

(0:03:02) Failure and the importance of learning from losses

(0:06:17) Embrace the journey and celebrate small wins

(0:09:08) The role of purpose in the industry and shifting power dynamics

(0:13:11) Expanding into riskier markets for higher impact and returns

(0:14:50) Power dynamics in providing loans to the agriculture sector

(0:21:11) Avenues' journey in becoming a lender

(0:22:21) Importance of agriculture and its potential in Africa

(0:25:25) Influence of growing up in a Kibutz on leadership style

(0:31:24) The difference between solving problems and adding value

(0:34:15) Identifying the value clients need and linking it to solutions

(0:36:52) Building a culture of purpose-driven individuals

(0:41:21) The importance of inner flame and winning together

(0:42:36) Aligning business models with client value


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Production and marketing by Monica Millares. For inquiries about coaching, collabs, sponsoring the podcast or creating or editing your podcast email fintechwithmoni@gmail.com


Disclaimer: This episode does not constitute professional nor financial advice and does not represent the opinion nor views of my current, past or future employers. The guest has agreed to record and release our conversation for the use of this podcast and promotion in social media.

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Purpose Driven FinTech
Building & Growing FinTech Products With Customer & Commercial Impact

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About your host

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Monica Millares

Monica advocates for financial safety for all. She is the Product Principal at BigPay, where she leads Product and Design. As part of the founding team, Monica led building BigPay’s product from zero to one, to multi product line, and international expansion. Her leadership shaped the culture and ways of working to grow from startup to scaleup. BigPay has over 1.4 million customers, and has presence in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Monica has almost 20 years’ experience in Financial Services. Prior to BigPay, she was one of the first joiners in UK’s challenger Tandem Bank, where she focused on building credit cards from scratch. Previously she worked in leading Financial Services brands like Visa, Barclays, and a Mexican Development Bank.

She sits on the Board of PayEd, and is recognised as Singapore’s #Fintech65 Product Leaders and Women in FinTech. She’s been multiple times speaker at the prestigious conference Money2020 and shared stage with JP Morgan, Standard Chartered Bank, Konsentus, and Money2020’s Rise Up. Her commitment to innovation and financial inclusion resonates in her podcast “Purpose Driven FinTech” where she explores how FinTech’s can have 10x more impact.

Monica has a background in Engineering and a Master’s Degree on Analysis, Design, and Management of Information Systems from the London School of Economics.