Ugandan fintech startup FutureLink is a community-driven marketplace that enables the unbanked and underserved to access and choose the most relevant and affordable financial services provided by a growing network of financial cooperatives on its platform.
Originally founded in 2005 as a software development company with US$300 in a garage space, FutureLink launched product including a web-based savings and core banking system in 2008, and a BaaS platform for financial cooperatives in 2016.
Its financial services marketplace was launched in 2022 after the acquisition of the National Payment System Operator license from the Central Bank of Uganda. Using the MSACCO app, a consumer is able to choose the best financial cooperative based on their preferences, open an account, deposit, withdraw, access credit, and annually earn dividends, without the hassle of visiting branches.
“An MSACCO customer can serve themselves through different channels such as the MSACCO app, USSD, internet banking, or the multiple ATMs in the market.” CEO Vincent Tumwijukye told Disrupt Africa.
“For the financial cooperatives, we are the platform through which they acquire and retain customers, mobilise community savings, grow transaction revenues, and operate at 10 per cent the ordinary infrastructure cost. The Savings Plus Banking as a Service platform includes a hosted core banking solutions and managed network. It is connected to MSACCO, thereby enabling self onboarding and service of customers for the financial cooperatives.”
The new focus for the business came after Tumwijukye and his team underwent the intensive Stanford Seed Transformation Programme, run by the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The goal is to solve the problem of financial exclusion, which is driven by the high cost and irrelevance of the available financial services currently targeted at the unbanked and the underserved.
“Africa’s society is largely built on communities. By working with financial cooperatives, FutureLink enables consumers to influence the design, delivery and pricing of financial services, since the cooperatives are owned by the consumers,” said Tumwijukye.
“A financial cooperative is in a better position to design better services for its community, much better than a commercial bank headquartered in the city. Furthermore, by enabling the consumer to choose the most relevant and affordable financial services, FutureLink democratises financial services, thereby driving competitiveness in the market, and benefiting both the market and communities.”
The company has largely been bootstrapped with internally-generated revenue, but has also leveraged grant and debt financing. In 2018, it received a grant of US$979,000 from the Mastercard Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity to scale up its Banking as a Service platform, and in mid-2022 it acquired a loan facility of US$200,000 from Iungo Capital. It is currently raising equity financing to scale its operations in Uganda and Zambia, and extend to three other markets.
“Since relaunch, we have seen decent traction with 127,000 digital subscribers and 170 institutions onboarded as providers of financial services,” said Tumwijukye. “We also indirectly serve an additional 570,000, who are still being served via the counter in the 312 branches of the financial cooperatives on our platform. We have an aggregate loan value of US$80 million and US$54 million in savings.”
FutureLink earns transaction revenue when a digital subscriber transacts using any digital channel to, say, deposit, withdraw, or access credit. Meanwhile, financial cooperatives pay a one-time initial license fee, and 20 per cent annually to be part of the platform. The company is profitable, with a 100 per cent quarter-on-quarter PBT growth rate.
