Paul Breloff

Paul Breloff is the founding managing director of the Accion Venture Lab, which invests in innovative financial inclusion startups globally. Since late 2012, Venture Lab has invested in 19 enterprises across East Africa, India, Mexico and the U.S. He has advised CGAP, Root Capital, Shell Foundation, BRAC, and others on access-to-finance issues globally. Previously, Paul worked with SKS Microfinance, India’s largest microfinance institution, leading business development and strategic initiatives and assisting on fundraising. Paul has also practiced corporate law with Mayer Brown and worked as an advertising account executive for Leo Burnett, and is a part-time instructor at Johns Hopkins, Monterey Institute of International Studies, and Impact Business Leaders. Paul graduated from Amherst College and the Yale Law School.

By Paul Breloff

Research

Understanding the Financial Service Needs of the Poor in Mexico

This Brief addresses the need for a deeper understanding of the financial needs of poor people. It takes a specific look at segmentation in Mexico.
Blog

Segmenting the “Bottom of the Pyramid” in Mexico

Reaching the poor with a range of useful, convenient, and affordable financial services is challenging for all the reasons we know. In the context of Mexico, access has increased significantly in the past few years (nearly 60% of all households), and changes in regulation enabling correspondent banking are likely to bring the access barrier down even further.
Blog

Overview of the G2P Payments Sector in India

We often write on this blog about the potential to link government-to-person (G2P) payments to financial services. We also closely follow branchless banking developments in India and have recently shared our take on the market. So imagine our excitement when we can talk about both together!
Research

An Overview of the G2P Payments Sector in India

CGAP has an ongoing focus on branchless banking in India and on G2P globally. This document is a useful overview that provides a structured framework for thinking about the complexity of G2P across various actors.
Blog

Financial Inclusion in the U.S.:Spending Time In Our Own Backyard

As we look globally for innovative business models and technologies, it’s a shame how little we (as two Americans) focus on our backyard in the U.S. Despite our comfort drawing similarities and lessons across markets as different as Brazil, India, and Kenya, we seem to assume that the U.S., with its technology and banking infrastructure, relative wealth, and uniquely complex regulatory context, is truly different. To test this and see what we might uncover “locally,” we attended the 6th Annual Underbanked Financial Services Forum in June to learn more about the state of the art in the domestic financial inclusion world and look for ways where global and local conversations overlap and can be integrated.