Tahira Dosani

Director of Portfolio Engagement at Accion Venture Lab

Washinton, D.C.

@tahiradosani | LinkedIn Profile

During our interview you mentioned you “allow yourself to be opportunistic”. What did you mean by this?

We’re taught to make plans. It’s generally nice to have a sense of what’s ahead and where you’re going. Uncertainty is uncomfortable, especially when it comes to our careers. But there’s also a lot to be said for not being so set on a path that you’re unable to take advantage of serendipitous opportunities that arise. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have had some wonderful opportunities come my way, but I could have easily chosen to stay on the track that was comfortable and defined. So it’s not just about letting myself recognize and take advantage of what comes, it’s also about actively forcing myself out of my comfort zones. It’s about challenging myself to constantly learn and grow.

I am innately curious. I want to know how things work and why. I like to figure out what’s at the root of a problem and how to solve it. When I meet people, I want to know their stories: who they are, where they’re from, what motivates and drives them. This compels me to constantly explore new paths and opportunities.

What motivated you to move to Afghanistan at the age of 23 and in the midst of a war?

I was more focused on the challenge and the opportunity than on what it would mean for me on a day-to-day basis. Living in an active war zone with significant restrictions on my freedom and mobility wasn’t easy, but I went because of what the opportunity afforded me and what I could help to achieve for the country. Working to build a telecom operator in a market where virtually no communications infrastructure existed taught me so much – I learned a new industry, a new market, what it took to build a new business, and, as it succeeded, how to fend off competition. I learned how to develop and launch new products – some which scaled, others which didn’t do so well. I learned how to manage a cross-cultural team. And not least, I learned about myself and my ability to adapt to any situation or circumstance.

You were a consultant with Bain & Company, one of the leading global consultancy firms. What advantage do you believe this has provided you in your career?

Bain was a wonderful place to start my career. It gave me the opportunity to build a core analytic and strategic toolkit that I have leveraged in every role since. I got an incredible amount of exposure to various business problems, industries, and organizations in my time there. I learned about organizational behavior and what it takes to push change through a business. Bain does a great job of investing in its employees – from trainings to on-the-job coaching, there is a constant flow of feedback and direction that helped me develop professionally. And I worked with a truly fantastic group of people; the people I met there are still some of my dearest friends.

What do you enjoy most about your latest role at Accion’s Venture Lab?

I have an amazing role right now. Venture Lab is a seed-stage impact investing initiative within Accion. We make equity investments in early-stage FinTech startups that are driving innovation in financial inclusion around the world. We are typically the first institutional investor into our companies or part of the first institutional round. There’s a huge capital gap at the seed-stage, especially in emerging markets. Not only do we help provide critical capital for early-stage entrepreneurs in the FinTech space, we also provide strategic and operational support to help these startups scale. I joined Venture Lab in 2013 to build out this platform for support. I got to design our approach to working with our portfolio companies and bring it to fruition. And now I get to spend my time working with passionate entrepreneurs who are at the forefront of innovation in the space, helping them with their biggest challenges. I love getting into the details of their operations and creating solutions, bringing lessons from one company in one region to another startup across the world to accelerate its growth, and then bringing those learnings back to the investing work that we do.

Concerning financial inclusion you stated “The problem’s too big not to work on it.” What did you mean by this?

The core issue that I’ve been working on – from various angles – over the last decade is economic empowerment. That entails giving individuals, small businesses, and communities the tools (the financial products and services as well as the knowledge and capabilities) they need to improve their livelihoods and lives. The need is massive; better economic empowerment is what helps people move up and out of poverty, it’s what enables people to plan for and withstand shocks, it lets people take the calculated risks they need to better their lives.

Financial inclusion is focused on improving access to quality, relevant, and affordable financial services for the underserved. Financial services are important not only in and of themselves, but because they allow access to a number of other critical services – education, healthcare, energy, and more. And financial inclusion doesn’t help just at the individual or household level, it is a powerful tool for economic growth at the macro level.

As an impact investor focused on FinTech, not only do I have the opportunity to work on the specific challenge of financial inclusion, I am also able to work to prove a new model of investing. At Accion Venture Lab we make investments in companies that we believe will generate strong financial returns and also have a significant social impact. The idea of eliminating the perceived trade-offs between financial and social returns is a big driver for me. If we can demonstrate that impact isn’t generated at the expense of financial returns, we can open the gates of the capital markets to impact focused businesses and bring about a transformed vision of capitalism.

So in short, there’s definitely lots to be done!

What do you see as the leading future trends for FinTech?

Each year brings with it prognostications of the new hot trends in FinTech. But one thing that isn’t going to be just a fad is that FinTech will continue to move downmarket, serving the huge market of consumers that aren’t effectively served today. But reaching this segment isn’t easy. We need products that are innovative and tailored to the needs of the customers they serve. We need delivery mechanisms that reach beyond urban centers in a cost-effective way. We need pricing structures that are aligned to the often volatile cash flows of low-income consumers. Technological and process innovation are key to this; for example, the ubiquity of mobile phones and smartphones create distribution channels that didn’t exist a decade ago. Small businesses and low-income consumers are a massive market opportunity; the companies that can figure out how to effectively reach the underserved will see exponential growth.

 

More about Accion’s Venture Lab

Venture Lab is an investment initiative that provides patient seed capital and support to innovative financial inclusion start-ups, fostering experimentation and promoting business models that improve financial access for people living in poverty worldwide.

Since these start-ups traditionally lack access to capital and assistance, Venture Lab provides flexible financial and non-financial support to suit the needs of each investee enterprise, as follows:

• Investment: We will typically invest U.S. $100,000 to $500,000 in equity or quasi-equity instruments, depending on the circumstances. We welcome opportunities to co-invest with like-minded investors and bring others to the table, particularly for later-stage investment into portfolio companies.
• Support: Venture Lab prefers to be an active investor and bring to bear the people and resources of the global Accion network to maximize the chance of success. In addition to day-to-day support from the Venture Lab team, investee companies may get connected to Accion’s in-house technical experts (technology, risk management, etc.), microfinance teams and customers from partner institutions around the world, and the global banking and investing community.