Our events

About the Virtual SME Marketplace  

Every other month, the marketplace sessions are featuring leading small business lenders and SME growth facilitators who present their MSMEs offerings in a 7-minute pitch to an audience of potential financial institution clients and partners looking for impactful fintech solutions.  
Through those sessions we foster collaboration between financial institutions, fintech companies, development finance institutions, and investors.  

Since its inception in April 2021, the marketplace has featured 200+ companies across different markets, attracted +3000 participants, and generated business leads, resulting in investments, strategic partnerships, and innovation advancements.

Topics

This session will feature digital innovators playing a transformative role in improving financial literacy for SME owners through embedded education platforms and tailored financial advice and learning.

Speakers will present some of the emerging topics in financial literacy for SMEs:

• Digital savviness
• AI readiness
• Blockchain and digital assets

They will also share innovative delivery methods to deliver personalized and accessible financial education:

• AI-powered personalized learning path
• Self-paced financial education journeys
• Embedded educational prompts and tools
• Gamification & simulation-based learning

Companies presenting their products and services

• ConsumerCentrix
  A strategy consulting firm based in Geneva, Switzerland, specializing in designing consumer-centric strategies for regulators, financial service providers, and multinational companies. They focus on translating consumer insights into market strategies and policies to reach underserved populations, with expertise in behavioral segmentation, product innovation, and gender-sensitive finance.
   
• 10x1000 Tech for Inclusion
  A global, open learning platform and philanthropic initiative co-founded by IFC (World Bank Group) and Ant Group. Its mission is to bridge the global digital skills gap by training at least 1,000 fintech talents annually for ten years. The platform offers fintech and digital skills programs to promote financial inclusion, targeting emerging markets and building a global community of digital economy professionals.
   
• Korefusion
  A strategy consulting and M&A advisory firm serving the international fintech, payments, and financial services industries. Korefusion provides insights and advice on payments strategy, financial inclusion, and mergers & acquisitions, working with both established leaders and challengers in the sector across developed and emerging markets.
   
• Silver Lining
  Silver Lining helps small and medium businesses (SMBs) build profitable, sustainable businesses through its proprietary methodology, the Silver Lining Action Plan (SLAP™). SLAP is a tech-enabled, data-driven SaaS program based on behavior change science that helps small business owners set and achieve their growth goals. Silver Lining has supported over 15,000 small businesses across 77 countries, focusing on solutions that meet the real needs of today’s small business owners and promoting a “Small Business First” approach to economic development.
   
• ONOW
  ONOW develops AI-driven bookkeeping and financial literacy solutions that make financial management intuitive for small business owners. The company’s platform turns informal data—like chat messages, voice notes, and receipts—into structured financial insights, enabling entrepreneurs to see their cash flow clearly and build confidence in financial decision-making. By combining behavioral data with embedded education and gamified learning, ONOW empowers entrepreneurs to build financial capability while producing investable, trustworthy data for financial institutions and ecosystem partners.

SPEAKERS

• Khadiga Hassan Fahmy, Senior Operations Officer, FIG Africa, IFC
• Jan Smith, Co-Founder and Partner at KoreFusion
• Jason Reiniger, Director of Product, SilverLining
• Matt Wallace, CEO, ONOW
• Dongye Yang, Senior Director, Global Strategic Development Center at Ant International | Program Head, 10x1000 Tech for Inclusion  
• Oleksandra Prysyazhnenko, Strategy Consultant, ConsumerCentriX

Organizer

The SME Finance Forum (SMEFF) is a network of 250+ members and affiliates with a coverage spanning across 190+ countries. The members are primarily financial services providers such as banks, fintech, non-bank financial institutions, development finance institutions, credit guarantee companies, and microfinance institutions. The affiliates consist of policy advocacy groups, academia, SME and banking associations, training providers, and non-profit organizations. SMEFF was established in 2012 by the G20 and is managed by the International Finance Corporation with a core objective to scale financial services for SMEs. As the leading SME finance network globally, the forum steers industry innovations, supports replication of best practices, recognizes global champions, drives thought leadership, convenes influential stakeholders, and fosters global knowledge transfer.