If you could pool together a bunch of money from your friends and family to buy a car would you? Depending on your location and culture, money pools are known as tandas, cundinas or Su Su, which allow friends and family “pool” a portion of their income together for an established number of pay periods and take turns receiving the lump sum.
Brothers Francisco and Luis Cervera used this methodology in their own lives and decided to modernize this cultural finance system to help the underserved population reach their personal and entrepreneurial dreams using a familiar system. Together they launched eMoneyPool in 2013. “We are leveraging an existing behavior and modernizing it in a way that people can access this through their smartphone,” Francisco said.
Since launch they have been working diligently to build the product, gain validation and capture the attention of angel investors.
In July, the founders took home the win and grand prize of $50,000 from the Silicon Valley-based, social conscious accelerator Village Capital. “…100 companies applied across the US, 14 companies made it, and we were number one.” Francisco said.
Franscico views this win as a positive for eMoneyPool and Arizona startups, “I think everyone is trying to highlight the tech area and it’s putting one more company on the map. We are really grateful for all the validation we are getting all around the country, and especially Silicon Valley. It says we are on the right track.”
This win comes on the heels of an undisclosed amount of capital they received from Accion’s Venture Lab, a $10 million initiative dedicated to providing seed capital and management to early-stage and social conscience startups.
Read: eMoneyPool raises money from Accion
This “Pool” of money will be used for job creation, mobile development and marketing efforts, Francisco said.
We’ve got a sneak peek at the next version of eMoneyPool below.
Read our coverage of eMoneyPool
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