Enablis & Pigmalion Studios: Creating an entrepreneurial movement

With 2,400 entrepreneurs in their worldwide network (70 in Argentina), Enablis is a nonprofit organization geared towards serving entrepreneurs in developing countries to create wealth through job creation. “We focus on innovative entrepreneurs with existing or early stage businesses that have the potential to expand internationally,” says Rose Vervenne, Director of Enablis Latin America.

Rose Vervenne, Director of Enablis Latin America

Originally focusing on South African entrepreneurs, Enablis has quickly expanded to six different countries (five in Africa and one in Latin America). They offer several programs to support their members including peer support groups (known as Enablis Circles or E-Circles), mentoring by successful entrepreneurs from around the world, coaches that meet with entrepreneurs to discuss their top two priorities for the quarter, and several other business improvement programs.

Marcelo Klein, CEO & Co-Founder of Pigmalion Studios 

For Marcelo Klein, Enablis member and CEO of Pigmalion Studios, it was the Enablis Circles that first caught his attention. “The E-Circles are a place of trust where you can tell fellow entrepreneurs what you are thinking, feeling and going through, both as a company and personally,” says Marcelo. “We call our E-Circle: Vegas. That’s because what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas and it’s the same for what is said during E-Circle peer support meetings.” Marcelo also credits his Enablis mentor as one of the biggest influencers on his business life. “He has experience taking a company from 2 people to 250 in under two years. We meet every two weeks to discuss what’s going on in Pigmalion Studios. It has made a huge impact for me and Pigmalion.”

With a focus on mobile applications and services, Pigmalion Studios develops technology solutions for clients like Visa, Forbes Argentina and others. They’ve been in business for four years. “When we first started out in mobile, our clients just didn’t understand the power of mobile technology for business. Now mobile technology is huge and we’re growing fast and steady!” In addition to their early start in mobile technology, “another big differentiator is our people,” says Marcelo. “I have two clients: our consumers and our employees. Our people are our key to success. We focus on hiring not only key techs, but good people.” Because of connections formed through Enablis, Marcelo expects to expand operations to the rest of Latin America, Europe and the U.S. over the next five years.

But, Pigmalion Studios isn’t the only organization looking to expand operations. “Five years from now, I’d love for Enablis to be in Chile, Colombia, Peru, Brazil and maybe even start our first chapter in Asia,” says Rose. What’s holding Enablis back from growth? “Because we are a non profit we have to figure out how to make a big impact with small resources,” cautions Rose. “We have to stay lean and we have to be super focused on creating an entrepreneurial movement from the base. We have to become an exponential organization.” Rose believes that if Enablis can stay lean and think exponentially, the organization will expand rapidly and continue to influence entrepreneurial growth in the developing world.

Bondarea: Need a loan? Don't go to the bank!

“As an entrepreneur in Argentina, you’re lucky if you can get an institution to write you a loan. But when they do, interest rates often fall between 45 – 55%,” says Antonio Zavalia, Director and Co-Founder of Bondarea. “Who can afford to take out a loan at those rates?” Bondarea is remedying the lack of available or affordable loans to small businesses and individuals in Argentina through their peer-to-peer lending website and software.

What’s the difference between peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding? While both are trying to solve capital related problems, small businesses that use crowdfunding techniques are selling a product. In return for contributing, funders receive a perk or product from the entrepreneur. When it comes to peer-to-peer financing, “entrepreneurs or individuals can ask for microloans. Loanees then bid to lend some or all of the requested loan at an interest rate dictated by the loanee.” This way, if an entrepreneur needed a loan of 16,000 Argentine Pesos, he could auction off his loan and several loanees could offer to lend different amounts at different rates. The entrepreneur could also decide to turn down an offered loan if the interest rate was not agreeable.

Overall, the average interest rate on Bondarea is 32.5%. “Competition among bids drives interest rates down,” says Antonio. While that might sound scary to an entrepreneur in the States, that’s a lot cheaper than going to a bank (interest rates fall between 45-55%). After two years in business, Bondarea says that the total percentage of late payments (those more than 30 days) is about 0.6% (only a fraction of its comparable number at local financial institutions) and to date, and no one has failed to pay back the loans.

Co-Founders Antonio (Left) and Frederico (Right) with Kaity Ersek. 

Antonio believes that these low numbers are due in part to the credit screening done by Bondarea. “It’s a mix of the backward looking factors found in the U.S. FICO score and forward looking factors, which judges how attractive a loan can be to potential loanees.” Bondarea screens each entrepreneur or individual before allowing him/her to auction off the requested loan.

However, it’s the software-as-a-service side of their business that is the most scalable and has the highest potential to affect entrepreneurs and individuals in need of a loan. “We sell the software used on our peer-to-peer lending platform to NGOs in Argentina, so they can more effectively and efficiently run their own community peer-to-peer lending programs.”

Overall, through both their peer-to-peer lending platform and software, Antonio says they’ve funded roughly 400 to 500 businesses, adding up to 6 million pesos (about 600,000 USD at the Argentine official rate) worth of loans. That’s a huge impact!

The biggest growth challenge for Bondarea is that, “people are scared to borrow or lend money in the current economic and political context… especially to a company that isn’t a household brand. It’s tough. However, as we build up a reputation for finding good credits and ensuring low borrowing costs, new users come to our platform in greater numbers.”  And yet, at the same time the lack of available loans means that there is a real potential for growth for Bondarea as both a lending platform and software.