# Untapped Global

Profitable investing in emerging markets, made easy for everyone 🌍

## Elevator pitch
Untapped Global is pioneering a new way to invest safely and profitably in frontier markets like those in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. We call it Smart Asset Financing™, and it uses technology and data to make it easier, safer, and faster for small businesses in emerging markets to access growth capital and scale. At the same time, it allows investors from all over the world to invest in local entrepreneurs and track their investments earn good returns.

- Canonical URL: https://wefunder.com/untappedglobal
- Entity ID: wefunder:company:98889
- Last updated: 2026-06-10T05:00:39Z
- Generated at: 2026-06-11T04:46:59Z

## Quick facts
- 📈 Profitable (EBITDA positive) in the first 10mo
- 💰 $1M revenue run rate and growing 40% month-to-month. 12/15 Edit: now $1.8M
- 🤝 25+ operating partners in the world’s fastest-growing emerging markets. Get in on the action!
- 🏦 Consistent 24% IRR on our investments: every $100 we invest pays us back $124 in cash
- 💵 Closed $1M in equity from accredited investors in October 2021
- 👫 Committed and purpose-driven team of 20 across Africa, Latin America, and the US
- 👩🏾‍💼 Update to our video made in Sept: we serve over 4,500 entrepreneurs in over 12 countries now

## Active fundraises
- wefunder:fundraise:54179: 4(a)(6) successful (USD)
- wefunder:fundraise:54180: 4(a)(6) successful (USD)

## Story
We call our investment model Smart Asset Financing™, and it uses technology and data to make it easier, safer, and faster for small businesses in emerging markets to access growth capital, and scale. At the same time, it allows investors from all over the world to invest in local entrepreneurs and track – in real time – the impact of their investments while making healthy returns. We’ve proven that it works: we have financed thousands of entrepreneurs in over a half dozen countries, and have become profitable in the 12 short months since we launched. But so far, we’ve only been able to make this investment opportunity available to “accredited” (ie. rich) investors willing to write big checks.Now, we want to make the opportunity to profitably invest in emerging markets available to everyone. We are fundraising to automate our platform and allow any type of investor – big or small – to invest in Smart Asset Financing™ for fast-growing small businesses in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.Asset financing isn't new and there are many startups introducing some form of smart asset financing as part of their business (motorcycle leasing, renewable energy projects, PAYGO services). What makes Untapped different is that we're pulling it all together: we're creating a consolidated platform for this smart financing, a tech stack that makes it scalable and efficient across many sectors and countries. By bridging the gap between investors and entrepreneurs on a systemic level, we can bring over $1B to overlooked small businesses in emerging markets in the next decade.I (Jim, founder and CEO) worked in tech for twenty years before the 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti in 2010. Like many stories in developing markets begin, I wanted to help, so I traveled there to volunteer and provide safe water to the displaced. After seeing billions of dollars of charity achieve few lasting results, I realized that sustainable change would only happen if local entrepreneurs lead the way. This led me to launch a social business that today serves thousands of Haitians safe drinking water via a local entrepreneur-led distribution network of over 700 small retailers across the island.Coming full circle 11 years later — the social business I founded is still providing the safe drinking water that I ventured to Haiti to deliver back in 2010, but in a way that is far more sustainable and empowering for the local economy.Taking these lessons with me, the real story is only just beginning. Untapped is the globalization of what we started in Haiti. I created Untapped specifically to address the problems I saw in the aid and development effort in Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake — to empower people to help themselves. To do that, we had to overcome a major hurdle we discovered as we tried to grow our business: the capital to grow our company wasn’t available simply because of where we were operating."We created Untapped to solve the problem that I faced trying to scale dloHaiti’s impact, but on a broader scale."Untapped still finances water infrastructure, but also energy and transport, because we see the same problem and opportunity across many industries in frontier markets. The digitization of revenue-generating assets (like water pumps, solar panels, and motorbikes), and innovation in digital payments offers a unique opportunity to reinvent how financing is done in frontier markets by reducing the risk, and increasing the scalability of financing to more small businesses.Invest now!According to the World Bank, the financing gap for micro-, small-, and medium-sized businesses in developing countries is $5.2 trillion. This gap is hard to fill because financing small businesses the conventional way – with lots of collateral and legal work – only makes sense for big pots of money, or for those who already have the wealth.We created Smart Asset Financing™ to put equipment in the hands of entrepreneurs who aren’t attractive to venture capital and don’t have access to traditional loans or grants, while giving you the opportunity to invest directly in life-changing, economy-boosting innovations - and make money while doing it.Read more about the opportunity in this article about the $5.2 trillion “blindspot”.- We finance. Our on-the-ground investment team identifies the best Operating Partners, or local companies who are experts at deploying the assets and managing the entrepreneurs that use them to make money. We do this for multiple asset types, and across multiple industries and geographies: electric motorbike-taxis in Uganda, water treatment systems in South Africans, and solar-powered irrigation pumps in Kenya, for example.-We track. We use the data that comes straight from these machines to track – in real-time – how well these businesses are doing. That makes it easier to manage risk, or in other words, know who we should continue to finance and help grow (spoiler - it’s the vast majority of them!), or in the rare case, we need to pull the plug.- We pay. We collect digital payments directly from our Operating Partners based on a revenue-share model. This means we take a share of the revenue that businesses earn from using the machine, as they use it, and then we pay you back your returns!An example of how we work with one of our operating partners, FlexClub:Edward, pictured below has been an UberEats courier in Mexico for the past 16 months. Thanks to Flexclub’s vehicle subscription model, Edward can now hit the road in his brand new Citio electric bike!An example of how we work with another operating partner, Paga:An example of the information we capture from the assets we finance:We have these processes in place for over 20 operating partners serving thousands of entrepreneurs. We have proven that they deliver returns safely and consistently to repay our investors. We are fundraising to automate many of these practices so that we can now offer these same offerings to more investors. Invest now!AGGREGATION. Our Smart Asset Financing model is applicable to almost any type of revenue-generating asset, and we’ve built our systems so we can work across multiple industries, geographies, and currencies. This means we can achieve game-changing reach and scale, while inherently de-risking your portfolio with diversification.DATA. Our IoT and data integration technologies mean we can track, in real-time, every single asset we finance. We know where they are, how much they’re being used, and how much money they make the person using it. Then we give that information straight to you, putting you in the middle of all the action.EMPATHY. Built by and for entrepreneurs, Untapped is first and foremost empathetic to our Operating Partners’ number one goal - growing their business. Our revenue-share model puts the entrepreneurs we work with first by ensuring our profit only grows as theirs does, and you make money you can feel good about. We’re not bankers; we’re partners that are invested in each of our partner’s growth. Read more about how our revenue-share model works here.IMPACT. Ask ten investors what ‘impact’ means to them, and you’ll get ten different answers. We choose to measure ‘impact’ with one metric that we can track universally: the revenue earned by the entrepreneur operating the asset.  We understand that the more revenue earned by the entrepreneur, the more sustainable income goes into the developing economies in which they operate. Each dollar earned is one brought home, and several more spent on goods and services in their communities. In other words, your investment will have an immense ripple effect, and you can track that impact in real-time as it multiplies.PRESENCE. Our team lives, breathes, works, and plays in the countries we invest in. That means we have the local knowledge and expertise to choose the best Operating Partners to work with, and you get access to local presence spread across the US, Africa, Latin America, and Europe.The Untapped team consists of international entrepreneurs and investors based in North America, Europe, Latin America, and Africa, and has decades of experience operating in and investing in challenging markets, information technology, and finance.We're also backed by investment professionals, successful entrepreneurs, and global brands who understand emerging markets and their potential.In the first 11 months since launch, we’ve achieved $1.8M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) with 40% month-to-month growth in the last 6 months. That means we’re already profitable!We’ve consistently achieved 24% IRR (returns) on our investments and recently secured partnerships with key Operating Partners that will allow us to more than double our revenues in the next year on those partnerships alone.**Because our business model generates cash every month from the assets we finance, we expect to pay dividends to our shareholders within just three years.**Watch our interview with Bloomberg about our partnership with Flexclub, which will make over 2,000 electric vehicles more affordable for on-demand drivers in South Africa and Mexico.Read more on Yahoo Finance about our partnership to help accelerate deployment of point-of-sale (POS) devices to over 120,000 small merchants in Nigeria with Paga, Africa’s next unicorn.We’ve established partnerships with over a dozen other partners like them, and support thousands of entrepreneurs through Africa and Latin America!Invest now!We’re raising equity to develop a platform that will allow any investor, big or small, to invest in emerging markets entrepreneurs, and make a good return. Your investment will help us build and launch our retail investing platform in 2022.We just raised $1M from accredited investors and now we’re raising on Wefunder because we want to give you and other retail investors the chance to get in on the action, and be part of the movement towards globally aware and conscious investing!We’ve been investing in emerging markets for the past twenty years - and we’re not just excited about it. We’re dedicating the next thirty to getting everyone else excited about it, too.We know that Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia are the future of profitable and impactful investing. Anyone already investing and building here knows how many lives can change for the better, if there was just enough money to do it...The money exists. The talent and potential exist. We’re bridging the gap.We're offering perks to our supporters!$250+: Shout out on the Untapped investor name wall, and exclusive access to our quarterly company updates.$500+: Early-bird access to our new investment platform launching in 2022. $5,000+: 1x1 consultation session with our founder, Jim Chu, on entrepreneurship and frontier market investing, OR 1x1 consultation on impactful entrepreneurial storytelling with our global media partner, Warrior Love Productions$10,000+: Exclusive invitation to Untapped's invite-only South Africa Showcase program in Cape Town, South Africa (May or November 2022)$25,000+: Be named an investor directly on our cap tableInvest now!---View our full deck below...Want to learn more and speak to our team? We're hosting an open Q&A session on Thursday, March 3rd at 9am PT / noon ET. Register and join us on zoom and ask us anything!** Note on forward-looking statements: Certain information set forth on this page contains “forward-looking information”, including “future-oriented financial information” and “financial outlook”. Except for statements of historical fact, the information contained herein constitutes forward-looking statements and includes, but is not limited to, the (i) projected financial performance of the Company; (ii) completion of, and the use of proceeds from, the sale of the shares being offered hereunder; (iii) the expected development of the Company’s business, projects, and joint ventures; (iv) execution of the Company’s vision and growth strategy, including with respect to future M&A activity and global growth; (v) sources and availability of third-party financing for the Company’s projects; (vi) completion of the Company’s projects that are currently underway, in development or otherwise under consideration; (vi) renewal of the Company’s current customer, supplier and other material agreements; and (vii) future liquidity, working capital, and capital requirements. Forward-looking statements are provided to allow potential investors the opportunity to understand management’s beliefs and opinions in respect of the future so that they may use such beliefs and opinions as one factor in evaluating an investment.These statements are not guarantees of future performance and undue reliance should not be placed on them. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or result expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.Although forward-looking statements contained on this page are based upon what Untapped management believes are reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Untapped undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management’s estimates or opinions should change except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

## FAQ
1. **Good morning, I would like to make my investment in two separate tranches, one directly and the other via my self directed Individual Retirement Fund account which is is currently managed by MidAtlanticIRA. I presume MidAtlanticIRA will need to set up a separate WeFunder accou...**
   - Jim, I will inquire with WeFunder on the best way to do this. It may be easiest to handle it manually. I'll get back to you ASAP!
2. **Hi. Can you explain how you arrived at your current $14M valuation? Was this the original valuation for this fundraiser or was there an early bird discount, and if so, when was it reached (as this fundraiser has not been running for that long)? Thanks**
   - Josh, We arrived at the valuation in three ways: 1. We looked at other fintech at similar stages raising their first round and chose a number well below theirs. 2. We then sanity-checked the number against the NPV of a 10-year discounted cash flow (DCF) based on a reasonable expectation of where we could be in the next 5-10 years. A DCF on a 10-year forecast is a bit ridiculous at this early stage in a company, but it shows that with conservative revenue growth, the current valuation is quite...
3. **You've stated that the funding gap (according to World Bank) in these emerging markets is $5.2 trillion. Are you using this figure as the total addressable market or is there a smaller niche within the $5.2 trillion that your company will operate?**
   - That is indeed the total addressable market, but the initial targets are Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia in the first years. The TAM for those three regions is $1.77 trillion. More practically, however, we will concentrate on several sectors, namely mobility, energy, and water. There are no good numbers for those sectors, but we estimate that over the next 5 years, those sectors in Africa alone have the potential for over $200 billion in profitable financing. Anecdotal sanity check: ...
4. **Aside from the Uganda motorbike loans what are you invested in? Is there a list available? Is there also regional/ national exchange traded stock assets?**
   - Matt, the list is extensive. It includes: * car subscriptions ridehailing (e.g. Uber drivers) in South Africa and Mexico * electric motorcycles for moto taxis in Kenya, Uganda, and Mexico * solar irrigation systems for smallholder farmers in Kenya * water treatment systems for grocery stores selling clean water in Kenya and South Africa * point-of-sale payment processing devices for small merchants in Nigeria * solar-powered refrigerators for small stores in Nigeria Email me at jim@untapped-g...
5. **Do you support entrepreneurship? https://www.linkedin.com/in/entrepreneurharsh91/**
   - Hi Harsh, The link you provided and the one in your profile didn't work. Could you clarify your question?

## Team
- Jim Chu (Founder and CEO)
- Yvonne Okafor (Investment Officer (West and East Africa))
- Vincent Kienzler (Chief Technology Officer)
- Lundie Strom (Communications and Partnerships Lead)
- Dan Nolan (Fund Manager)
- Caitlin Craig (Investment Officer (Southern Africa))
- Gary Ford (Board Director)

## Recent posts
- Only 6 days and $185K remaining (2022-03-23T06:26:20Z)
- Ask Us Anything! Thursday, March 3rd at 9am PT / Noon ET (2022-02-28T22:04:44Z)
- Why I created Untapped (2022-02-24T10:27:56Z)
- Our first newsletter of 2022: "Bringing DeFi to Emerging Markets with Untapped" (2022-02-17T09:20:45Z)
- Meet the Untapped Global team! (2022-02-09T13:04:19Z)
- Untapped Seeking Startups Podcast (2022-02-02T17:44:00Z)
- Untapped Global Partners with Africa Chamber of Digital Commerce to Accelerate Socio-economic Development in Emerging Markets (2022-02-01T18:36:16Z)
- We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change how financing gets done! (2022-01-25T15:15:01Z)
- A Nigerian fintech Founder and a Silicon Valley investor get into a Tesla… Watch what happens next! (2022-01-18T14:50:45Z)
- Our first ever Impact Report is out! (2022-01-11T16:08:20Z)
- Happy New Year! Our December 2021 Investor Update (2022-01-05T13:09:44Z)
- What we did in 2021 and why we did it (2021-12-15T12:41:02Z)
- $1.8M ARR and 3000+ entrepreneurs! (2021-12-13T22:04:44Z)
- Another scale-up partner! Motorcycle leasing in Uganda with Asaak (2021-12-09T18:40:20Z)
- Ask us anything! (2021-11-30T15:22:45Z)

## Q&A
- Q: Hi Jim, great business idea and congrats on your traction so far. I'm an impact investor, so believe this company fits my criteria profile. A couple of questions I don't believe I saw answered: 1. There seems to be some "sister companies" (i.e. Untapped Water and Untapped LLC) that I saw in the recent unaudited report. Can you please expand on the relationship and what we're investing in with Untapped Investments? 2. You described this in the investor video posted 2months ago, but can you summarize potential ROI you're open to for CF investors in the future (i.e. dividends, M&A, IPO, etc.). It seems like Untapped has a 5-7% margin, so since we're equity in the business, how will this be shared for investor ROI. 3. The debt on the books, I understand is for AUM. What happens if the entrepreneur is not able to pay back? Does that come from shareholders equity to repay the debt?
  - A: LD, apologies for not seeing this question until just now (I need to find where to turn on notifications!). Thanks for the compliments and great questions. I'm glad to see people going through the documentation in detail. See below for some answers. 1. Sister companies. I have been actively investing and operating in emerging markets for a while and much of that activity is under Untapped LLC. Untapped LLC is primarily an investment company and isn't taking equity investments; it manages several funds and is the vehicle through which I personally make equity investments. Untapped LLC provided the initial tranche of funding to get the company going and today still ends as the "lender of last resort" (essentially, I am providing liquidity to Untapped Invest, inc. as needed in the form of a revolving loan). We launched Untapped Invest, Inc. in January 2021 as the main entity to roll out the investment platform and Smart Asset Financing. It owns all the IP and all tech development goes through this entity as does the equity investments. In short, all the equity value is in the software platform and operating knowledge around Smart Asset Financing so that's where we are building the business and for which we are seeking equity, i.e. Untapped Invest, Inc. All the equity being raised here is going into Untapped Invest, Inc. which has a clean cap table and clear history not confused by Is there a conflict of interest in the fact that I am still an active equity investor in African startups (i.e. the activity under Untapped LLC)? Yes, there could be some, but I sincerely believe that it adds a lot more than it risks. I often will personally take equity positions in companies that we do Smart Asset Financing in after we work with them and realize that they are awesome teams and companies. I've done this with FlexClub and Paga as two examples. I've even invested (again, in a personal capacity) in companies that may ultimately help Smart Asset Financing such as my investment in Opibus, an electric vehicle producer in Kenya that produces EVs that Untapped Invest Inc may one day be able to finance. Being an equity investor in these companies gives us insights that a typical lender doesn't have. 2. Exits for CF equity investors. There are four possibilities: a) We are a cash flow business so we expect to be paying dividends to shareholders within 3 years. I expect the dividend rate to be 3-4% annually of your investment capital. b) We plan on securitizing portions of our portfolio once it is large enough (in 2 years or so). That means we will take a sector, such as emobility, and refinance it to larger financial institutions and investors who want the impact and the cash flow, i.e. a climate impact fund could refinance $10M of electric vehicle loans to get the impact and the returns. There will be extra spread / cashflow in this "securitization" — fairly large lump sums — which will be disbursed to shareholders as dividends when the board decides to do so. This is what US banks do with the mortgages they lend out and how they make money c) A international fintech company that wants to either a) enter frontier markets and/or b) target US impact investors investing small amounts of money but at large scale, buys us for the network of operating partners we've developed and the expertise in this growing area, or buys us for the digital impact investing platform we've built and proven to scale d) We IPO in 7-10 years The four outcomes and "exits" for investors are not mutually exclusive. The ideal outcome is that we start paying dividends by 2024, and every year or so there is a lump sum dividend when we conclude a large securitization, and then we start shopping the company to potential acquirers in 5-7 years. If we are big enough or sexy enough, we IPO when the timing is right in the market. Regardless, my goal is to deliver a financial upside to shareholders and company staff holding options in 10 years or so. In the shorter term, I expect to take the equity funds raised to build the tech platform and expand our traction so that we can raise a institutional round in 2022 at a valuation that should be considerably higher than the valuation cap -- that doesn't put cash into your hands right away, but it is an increase in value. 3. Who bears the risk of default. Untapped Invest, Inc. does and it comes out of our equity. So far, however, we've been able to maintain a sizable cushion between debt repayment and revenue coming in from payments, and the way we manage risk is quite different from a bank giving a loan. We are constantly disbursing and receiving payments and we can see the deterioration of a business in the data and can stop the flow of financing to limit risk any time the numbers no longer work. That's the point of data-driven risk management with ongoing financings: we can see and track risk much more closely so can manage it better than a bank who gives out money after a long due diligence cycle and then can only pray or pursue legal action once a borrower doesn't pay (which may be months or years after the deterioration of the business they were financing). I hope that is helpful and please do feel free to contact me directly at jim at untapped-global.com if you have more questions Jim
- Q: I love the idea and the tech goals behind what you're trying to do. I don't have a question about the investment opportunity, but I do have a question about the beneficiaries of the financing. How long would it take someone like Edward, the UberEats courier, to pay off the financing? I see companies and opportunities like Untapped and wonder how truly beneficial it is for someone taking advantage of the financing. If a significant incentive for an investment is social impact, how can I be sure that it's not financial exploitation that runs at cross-purposes to that social impact?
  - A: Great question, Keith. In the example of Edward, he will own the motorcycle after 11 months. Almost all of our financings are "lease to own" and offer a bridge to true ownership, vs. perpetual servitude as is the case in many situations. Not every case is perfect, but we strive for the following: 1) All three parties -- the operator, the operating partner (the company servicing the asset), and Untapped -- need to make enough profit for it to be worthwhile. If it isn't for any one of the three parties, then the model breaks down and/or doesn't scale because you can't find enough operators to take the asset 2) Being a bridge to ownership: operators are more likely to care for the asset and be motivated if they know it will be theirs. 3) Our mission is empowerment and ownership of something that makes them money is the most empowering thing you can give someone Jim
- Q: How does your company differ from Trickle Up and organizations like that?
  - A: I don't know Trickle Up, but from looking at their website and their projects, they seem to be a charity organization that raises donations to do projects in poor communities to "increase opportunity" which they seem to mean literacy programs, skills training, reproductive health, etc. Untapped is a business that sees financing entrepreneurs in emerging markets as both profitable and positively impactful when done in the right way. When I coined the phrase "create opportunity", I meant to say that we are directly giving an entrepreneur the chance to run a business or grow their business by providing them the capital to do it. We also don't take donations but only investments that can pay investors back a return on their capital. Higher-level, it seems that they serve the very poorest in the poorest countries. They are in countries that we don't see as safe enough for our investors capital: Sudan, Chad, Burkina Faso. What they do it very much needed but is quite different from what we do which is to finance entrepreneurs. Jim
- Q: Hi - Very interesting company/offering. I understand Reg CF investors would be investing in Untapped Invest Inc. Does Untapped Invest make equity investments in portfolio companies, or only via Smart Asset Financing? The pitch deck shows equity investments, but I wasn't sure if that's under a different entity. Is the currrent $1.8m ARR based solely on Smart Asset Financing?
  - A: Jeff, Correct that Reg CF would be equity investors in Untapped Invest, Inc. which invests through the Smart Asset Financing model that Untapped Invest, Inc. manages. The equity investments shown in the pitch deck are equity investments made by Untapped Invest, Inc. sister funds and myself personally. In fact, that's how we became convinced that Smart Asset Financing model is a huge opportunity: we kept coming across companies that we wouldn't invest in as equity investors because they were too capital intensive or didn't have a "winner-takes-all, asset-light" (i.e. purely software) business model for a promising exit but were great companies generating significant cash flows. Smart Asset Financing captures those opportunities. In some cases, we've done both – an equity investment and an investment through Smart Asset Financing – but those are rare, and usually, we do that because 1) the equity investment helps strengthen the relationship with the Smart Asset Financing investee and 2) through the Smart Asset Financing data provided a level of due diligence and insight that led us to become equity investors. Note that the WeFunder investment is separate from the equity venture funds through which I make equity investments. If you'd like to learn more about those equity venture funds, you can email me at jim(at)untapped-global.com Jim
- Q: When is the offering going to end I would like to invest in your startups. Is this startup going to create billion dollars unicorns
  - A: Francisco, my apologies for the delay in responding. We missed it over the Christmas break. The offering will likely end whenever we hit $1M. I anticipate that to be sometime in February but it could happen in January. Untapped's broader goal is to help startups connect with global capital and really scale. Some will indeed become unicorns. Two already in our portfolio are already on their way to becoming unicorns. We also aspire to be worth more than a $billion and serve over a billion people one day as well.
- Q: (1) What's your go-to-market strategy for finding investors for your new platform launch in 2022? Where will you advertise, etc? (2) Do you have insight yet into CAC and LTV? (3) Who are your competitors? Is anyone else doing this currently? (4) Your website has Forbes, the wall street journal, and republic all listed among others. Why are they there? Does untapped have any affiliation with those companies? Thanks again and best of luck!
  - A: Nathan, 1) We have two main customer segments: a) larger, accredited investors, and b) smaller non-accredited investors. Our GTM for (a) is through our network and through wealth managers. The $4M in debt consists of notes sold to these customers in the last 9 months. This will continue to grow using the same strategy we have pursued. For (b), the GTM is through online outreach and advertising. As we are restricted from public offerings, this crowdfunding campaign is the first time we are reaching out to retail investors, and as such as are using the crowdfunding campaign to refine and improve our strategy. It's quite early days so we don't have a lot of data on CAC. 2) CAC and LTV. For customer set (a), we estimate the CAC to be ~ $4,000 per customer, most of which is staff to engage large investors. LTV per customer is $25,000 - $30,000 in net margin. We don't have enough data to tell you for (b) but using the very limited data we have from the crowdfunding campaign, I ballpark marginal CAC at $4 per customer (based on click-through and conversion rates). Each $1000 in notes gets us $50 - $60 in net margin per year so assuming each customer stays with us an average of one year with an average note size of $1000, then we net more than $40 per new customer. Of course, we hope/expect customers to be with us longer than 1 year and our strategy is to increase their holdings over time. 3) Competitors. They break down into three main categories a) operating companies that deal with smart assets and decide they want to build an investment platform to raise money for the asset financing. b) investment platforms that seek to fundraise for micro-loans emerging markets c) traditional financial institutions and lenders who want to do more "fintech" All three are doing some elements of this, but there are limitations: (a) operating companies have a hard time achieving the scale and diversification to make it work. This group is growing fast and we see them as our customers since we pool their financing needs to make it work. (b) Investment platforms often lack the deal flow and local networks / relationships to do good deals. They can raise a lot of money, but deploying the capital for high impact and returns is another thing. We also see these folks as partners because we intend to "sell" them our high-quality digital revenue streams. (c) Traditional financial institutions like banks will be very slow to change their risk management model to be able to do data-based financing (but they could be our note holders). There are a number of companies doing similar things to our model, but all focused on developed markets: Square offering small business owners instant loans based on the data from their POS systems, Pipe offering SAAS companies financing backed by the online subscriptions they've signed up -- this latter one is almost exactly what we do but we take the revenue streams of physical assets. 4) Forbes, etc. have mentioned us in their coverage, either quoting us, writing about what we do, etc. We have no other affiliation with them. Thanks for the wishes! We'll need more hard work than luck but it always helps
- Q: Hi. Can you explain how you arrived at your current $14M valuation? Was this the original valuation for this fundraiser or was there an early bird discount, and if so, when was it reached (as this fundraiser has not been running for that long)? Thanks
  - A: Josh, We arrived at the valuation in three ways: 1. We looked at other fintech at similar stages raising their first round and chose a number well below theirs. 2. We then sanity-checked the number against the NPV of a 10-year discounted cash flow (DCF) based on a reasonable expectation of where we could be in the next 5-10 years. A DCF on a 10-year forecast is a bit ridiculous at this early stage in a company, but it shows that with conservative revenue growth, the current valuation is quite reasonable. 3. We raised the first equity round of $1M from accredited investors at just under this valuation.
- Q: Please who are Untapped Global I (SPV) and how come I don't see it in any of the disclosure forms?
- Q: What do you anticipate your 2022 and 2023 revenue to be?
- Q: Hi Jim - Great webinar (I watched the recording). I just made my investment and may increase it. 1). What is your relationship with Asaak? It seems Untapped was a funding source for Asaak but now a competitor? 2) You mentioned on the webinar that securitization may be a funding source in the future. What other funding sources will be used as you really start to scale. Which are the most likely options? What percentage will come from the retail platform that is being built?
  - A: Jeff -- great questions! 1) Asaak is an Operating Partner. Our main role is to a) aggregate financing demand and b) normalize the revenue data from a variety of well-vetted operators like Asaak across different countries, currencies, and sectors. This aggregation creates scale and diversification that single-asset, single-region operators have difficulty achieving. For investors, it means safer investment opportunities that can be done at large scale (important for "securitization" to institutional investors later on, and important for large-scale impact). On the flip side, the value we provide for Operating Partners is that we consolidate a variety of funding sources into a single access point, so that each Operating Partner doesn't need to invest in the technology, team, and compliance to raise money from capital markets. Should every company try to become an expert in family office fundraising, reatil investors, dealing with banks, dealing with impact investors, dealing with private bond markets? Some maybe, but for most, no. Our objective is to be the center of the two-sided marketplace for data-driven financing and make it safer and easier for investors while making it faster and easier for Operating Partners. 2) Funding sources for scale. We are building different funding channels in a phased and layered approach. a. Family offices and high-net-worth individuals -- this is where we started and forms the base. Many companies / funds would stop here and just get more impact investors (both family offices and institutional investors). Our approach is to expand to a number of complementary sources of capital, including b. Retail investors. In fact, this equity round is specifically to raise money to fund the technical development of an automated investment platform that can accommodate thousands of small investors. The funds will also go towards legal compliance for doing that. It will take years for this channel to reach scale, but I firmly believe that going "direct to consumer" is the right way to go for this type of investment, both for investors and for investees c. Institutional investors including commercial banks, development finance institutions (DFIs), and other private lenders. We plan to do this later because it makes more sense to work with institutions when we already have a large portfolio with lots of data -- we plan to "securitize" our asset portfolio and "sell" it to large investors. This will likely start in 2023 - 2024 d. Emerging investment platforms, esp. those what legally work in Web3 to raise money from crypto investors. Today, almost 100% comes from (a), but by 2024, I anticipate that 40% will come from (b) and another 40% will come from (c), retail and institutional investors, with the remaining 20% coming from family offices and alternative digital investment platforms including some compliant crypto. By 2030, I anticipate more than 75% coming from (b) and (d) as I anticipate the whole world of financing changing (in a more democratic way that relies less on large institutional intermediaries). I hope I answered your questions! Jim
- Q: You say don't worry about governments and lawyers, etc. It's all about the data. Is that true? How does the company I may invest in function without worry about governmental requirements? I heard you say you have security agreements with other investors. What security will we have if you fail?
  - A: Steven, Emphatic "no" to the statement about not worrying about governments and lawyers. On the investor side, it's crucial to stay compliant to SEC regulations and guidance. In the US, we are using Reg D 506(c) to legally fundraise and in fact, a significant portion of the WeFunder fundraise is going to legal fees to achieve legal compliance in the US under SEC regulations and public guidance. In the countries where we deploy, we rely on Operating Partners to be locally compliant and have the licenses to operate their business. We cannot operate outside of governmental requirements. Re: security agreements. Note holder loans are repaid by the assets' revenue streams and we hold that as security as long the asset is in productive use (making money for someone operating it). In the future we will have first-loss reserves and guarantees provided by certain types of lenders and development finance institutions so the risk of Note Holders losing their money can be minimized as much as possible. We are NOT, however, FDIC insured or any other such government guarantee, and as with any startup, your money is fully at risk. If we fail, all your money is gone. Jim
- Q: Your "details" say: "Gary Ford currently serves as President & CEO of MCE Social Capital. Since 2006, MCE has made over $75MM in loans to microfinance institutions and small and medium enterprises in 30 countries. Gary will join Untapped as a Board Director on January 1, 2022" Did that happen? How often do you update the information you put on WeFunder?
  - A: Yes, Gary Ford is now on our Board! WeFunder updates: indeed, we only been updating WeFunder every month or so (even as of this writing, the revenue numbers are already out of date -- our latest is at $2.5M annual revenue run rate and we've added Operating Partners and staff, etc.), And I missed the content on the "details" page, but I can't actually change it since it's part of the Form C disclosures submitted to the SEC in November 2021 in order to go live with this crowdfunding raise, it was automatically generated by WeFunder in November. Jim
- Q: How often do you look at the messages we post here? And, how do you organize everything you are trying to do? Have you done this before?
  - A: I try to monitor this question board every couple of days. How do we organize everything? That's a broad question, but the short answer is that we try to get great people on board and each person takes charge of their area: Vincent runs the tech team out of Nairobi and keeps development going smoothly; Caitlin, Yvonne, and Reem manage investments and keep track of their assessments through Investment Memos and Operating Partner files + ongoing data analysis; Dan N. does the finances and makes sure we are tracking all revenues and reporting; Don T. takes care of the accounting and local books. Outside counsel provides legal advice on compliance. I am the primary investor point of contact, so I guess that leaves me to answer WeFunder questions from our 300+ investors and potential investors! Jim
- Q: I saw something about unaudited reports. Do you have reports that are verifiable?
  - A: We don't have audited reports, but we have a statement from an independent certified accountant who has reviewed our financial statements. You can download and view their report in the "details" tab Jim
- Q: Hi there how does investors make money
  - A: Scott, There are two types of investors: 1. Equity investors in the company Untapped and they hold shares of the company. They are owners of the company. The way equity investors make money is through dividends and a potential future acquisition or IPO. I talk about these potential "exits" in each of the open Q&A sessions we've hosted. Here is the latest one (it's the first question): https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/agFD3GaQYrMo-sU1Y62ycKNsmsPp3D4HkRjJQ1d-5WNthDIyjC9JXnLtw4YBPAxH.Vkt8WkHRYb7cf7BF Passcode: 9uj5JTW& 2. Note holders are effectively lenders and they get fixed interest payments of 8-10%/year for a 18-month note. The 6-month note has a lower yield. Jim