Until now, the startup has helped more than 200,000 people and aims to lift 100 million people out of poverty by the year 2023
Anheuser-Busch InBev, the parent company of the Budweiser brewing company, is working on using blockchain technology to power an economy in which more people, who do not have banking services, have an opportunity to thrive; also, the company seeks to contribute, as much as possible, to poverty reduction. To achieve this goal, and in order to see positive changes in the medium term, companies set the goal until 2023.
According to a statement recently published in different local media, the beer giant, which also owns Stella Artois, the Corona and Beck brands, among many others, has invested a significant amount, which still unknown, in a fundraiser of the Series A, with the aim of contributing to the creation of Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) BanQu.
The BanQu tool was established in 2015. Since then, it has been working to connect, especially, rural workers, such as farmers, who often need more support to receive their monetary rewards and encourage themselves to work, feeling protected.
Said initiative aims to connect those, who work in the fields and that unfortunately often do not have banking services, with the companies and organizations for which they work in all the supply chains. This is where the participation of distributed ledger technology (DLT) or blockchain would come into participation to provide its contribution in this important productive sector.
Until now, BanQu has made it possible for these people to access financial services such as MTN and Airtel (telecommunication), through associated banks and mobile money providers. This increases the financial perspectives of these workers and would be the basis for the startup to contribute to reduce poverty levels.
Without Poverty by 2023
As reported by said startup, until now it has helped more than 200,000 people thanks to its initiative. It maintains its goal of removing 100 million people from poverty by 2023. As part of that work, AB InBev and BanQu previously partnered to participate in a pilot program that connected 2,000 farmers in Zambia with the mobile platform. In this way, those people were able to access the so-called modern banking. The project was subsequently extended to other countries, including Uganda, India, Brazil, Costa Rica, India, among others.
About this matter, Chief Procurement & Sustainability Officer at Anheuser-Busch InBev, commented: “After the excellent pilot performance of BanQu in our 100+ Accelerator, we are pleased to consolidate the partnership with Ashish, Jeff and the entire BanQu team, through a capital investment. Together, we are working to improve access to modern banking for thousands of farmers in underserved rural markets”.
Milikin added that this has made it possible to promote “inclusive growth” and contribute to the 2025 Sustainability Objective, as well as comply with the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
Among other details, the firm reported that BanQu will use the profit that comes from the Series A round to consolidate its existing operations and to help deploy its operations in China and Mexico this year.
By María Rodríguez
