How Mastercard’s Strive initiative will accelerate economic recovery for SMEs

By Gaia Lamperti

Micro and small enterprises have endured some of the harshest impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic with 61% of UK small business owners declaring they had serious financial concerns at some stage of the pandemic.

The shift towards digital platforms in a world that has been rapidly moving online certainly opened new opportunities for SMEs globally, but also pushed many to the brink of failure.

To address the conundrum, this week Mastercard launched Strive, a global initiative focused on strengthening the financial resilience of small businesses and supporting their recovery and growth. As part of the initiative, the company will work with regional FinTechs (such as Tilde, Soldo, and Revolut), social impact firms, and non-profit organizations to ensure the most vulnerable small businesses have access to secure tools and resources to scale up their digital presence and offerings.

The program is supported by the payments giant’s Center for Inclusive Growth and kicked off with an initial philanthropic investment of $25 million from the Mastercard Impact Fund. The main aim of Strive will be to help over 5 million micro and small business around the world to enhance and simplify their ability to manage cash flow, gain and retain customers, and prosper digitally.

“This program builds on lessons learned and a body of work developed as part of Mastercard’s long-term focus on financial inclusion,” said Shamina Singh, President and Founder of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. “By leading with an equity-intentional lens and partnership-driven approach, Strive will meet owners where they are and connect them to the resources they are telling us they need to succeed and grow over the long-term.”

Strive Community: enabling access to tech resources

The initiative will support collaboration between global platforms and localised programs with a data insights-first approach. Starting with Strive Community, one of the first programs launched, 5 million small businesses across Europe, Latin America, MENA and Asia will already benefit from the initiative.

By partnering up Caribou Digital, a research and advisory firm focused on aiding the development of inclusive and ethical digital economies, Strive Community will enable the businesses in the network to utilise technology resources for digitalising their operations, streamlining financial and back-office services, and improving market in our modern economy.

“We are excited to partner with Mastercard to provide small businesses with the tools they need to reach their potential in a digital world,” said Chris Locke, Founder of Caribou Digital. “By partnering with a wide range of interconnected organizations, the program will deliver valuable resources for digitization and foster further innovation, while enabling us to drive impact at scale.”

Strive UK: supporting SMEs with a local market focus

The second program launched as part of the Strive initiative will be Strive UK which aims to bolster the financial resilience and unlock the growth of 650,000 micro and small enterprises in the UK through personalized advisory services, data science-driven tools, and insights and digitization support.

Working together with local small businesses-focused NGOs, including Enterprise Nation, Digital Boost and Be the Business, and complementing the UK government’s efforts such as Help to Grow, Strive UK will focus on providing dedicated resources to the most vulnerable small businesses including those that are women and minority-owned.

The importance of accelerating small business growth

Representing approximately 90% of business and more than 50% of employment worldwide, as per the World Bank, SMEs are essential contributors to job creation and local economies development, therefore playing a key role in the global effort towards the post-pandemic recovery.

Even before the pandemic, small businesses were falling behind their larger competitors in integrating digital technologies and competing in the rapidly growing digital economy. According to a 2019 European Union survey, roughly 80% of large businesses had implemented at least one digital technology versus only 30% of micro-businesses.

The Mastercard announcement of Strive fits into the company’s effort to reverse the trend and follows its  $250 commitment to support small businesses’ financial security made last year. Strive will extends Mastercard’s pledge to facilitating financial inclusion, with efforts underway to bring in a total of 1 billion people and 50 million micro and small businesses into the digital economy by 2025.