women stand outside their rickshaws Photo by Nikhil Kapur

Gig Platforms and Financial Inclusion

    Across emerging markets, millions of informal workers are joining gig platforms in sectors like ride-hailing and deliveries. Amidst welcome scrutiny towards fair and sustainable gig work, this growth trajectory will continue as informal work is increasingly digitally mediated and gig platforms become a significant source of income for low-income segments globally.  

    Workers joining platforms in emerging markets like India, Kenya and Indonesia are often taking their first steps into a digitized, formal work identity. They get paid into digital accounts and generate reams of data on the quantity, regularity, and quality of their work. But most workers are financially excluded so offering them financial services via platform can help solve long-sustaining challenges in financial inclusion. In all, the rise of digitally intermediated work is a unique opportunity for the financial inclusion of informal workers.  

    CGAP’s 3-year engagement with platforms and fintechs and direct research with gig workers offers a glimpse into what the future could look like.  

    “If we connect our workers with financial services that they think are valuable, then they keep seeing value in our platform. And every such opportunity then contributes to their retention on our platform.”

    Melina Cruz, Founder of Homely, a platform focusing on domestic cleaners in Mexico

    Can gig platforms enable financial inclusion?

    CGAP supported five pilots to offer financial services to platform workers to understand the potential of the platform ecosystem to make financial inclusion for this segment more effective, viable, and impactful. These experiences create a picture of how platform rails are being leveraged to design, target, and offer innovative financial services for workers. The set of three briefs presented here offer a guide to platforms, FSPs, and fintechs worldwide seeking to understand how to embed financial services for platform workers and the state of innovation today.

    A group of riders from Bykea, a Pakistani ride hailing and parcel delivery company, use their smartphones to look for rides early in the morning outside the company’s headquarters in Islamabad. Photo by Saiyna Bashir
    Publication

    The Setup: Partnerships and Conditions for Offering Financial Services to Gig Workers

    Platforms can offer financial services to underserved gig workers through digital channels, but it's essential to have the right environment for payments, regulations, and analysis. In this brief, early lessons share how institutional partnerships can lead to successful market entry.
    a woman in a mask and gloves cleaning a window in a home Photo by Lorena Velasco
    Publication

    Putting Gig Data to Work: Innovations in Expanding Credit Access

    Learn how industry pioneers such as Moove and Karmalife have developed algorithms and products to use work and earnings data to extend credit to gig workers in this new brief.
    a man on a motorbike, on his phone preparing to make a delivery Photo by Temilade Adelaja
    Publication

    Financial Services for Gig Workers: Lessons on Getting Design and Delivery Right

    This brief highlights four examples of successful design and delivery methods employed by industry leaders in providing financial services to gig workers.

    “The drivers for us literally drive our company and push the ecosystem forward. And so, if they are doing well, if we can positively impact their livelihoods, economic well-being, and stability, that is a good thing for the ecosystem. It creates a healthier, more stable, more sustainable ecosystem, and brings value to the company as well.”

    Tanah Sullivan, Head of Sustainability for GoTo, a super-platform offering rides and ecommerce in Indonesia

     

    What we have learned so far: Innovators' perspective

    CGAP fostered a learning collaborative with 50 executives from platforms, fintechs trying to introduce financial services for gig workers. These videos bring together their views on the opportunities they found, their learnings through experimentation, and ideas to solve emerging challenges. See the whole playlist here.

    platform workers looking at their phones

    Video

    Get insights from a range of experts in the fintech and platform industry about the advantages of developing financial services tailored specifically to the requirements of gig workers.

    woman on phone in front of car

    Video

    Gain insights from professionals in the industry regarding the challenges of providing financial services to gig workers on platforms.

    man on bike looking at his phone

    Video

    Offering financial services to gig workers presents numerous challenges for platforms. To address these challenges, industry experts advise careful consideration when designing delivery mechanisms for such services. Here are some helpful tips.

    How can development funders support platform-based financial inclusion?

    Development funders have an important role to play in encouraging and scaling innovation in platform-based financial services. Our experience suggests that progress may not happen without broader support from global stakeholders, since few governments and platforms fully understand opportunities latent in digital work and the need to build, rather than endanger, the financial health of workers. More work can also be done to highlight and facilitate the impactful work of innovators finding new ways to provide these services. Finally, funders must foreground worker needs in their funding and investments.

    receipt for a good order on a mobile phone Photo by Saiyna Bashir
    Blog

    The Road Ahead for Platform Gig Workers’ Financial Inclusion

    Gig platforms offer financial inclusion potential for their workers, but roadblocks remain. Learn how funders and the financial inclusion community can better support innovation and impact on gig platforms.
    a smiling woman standing by a rickshaw
    Publication

    How Can Financial Services Support Platform Work? Insights from Five Emerging Markets

    Based on research with platforms and their workers across five countries, this report describes the platform ecosystem in emerging markets, the experiences of workers and sellers in key sectors, and how financial services can help these workers improve their livelihoods.
    a woman sitting in the driver seat of a parked car looking at her phone
    Reading Deck

    Women in the Platform Economy: Emerging Insights

    Millions of women work in the platform economy but often face barriers that prevent them from capturing platform-based opportunities. Learn about female workers’ experiences and how financial services can help make platforms more inclusive.

    "As a fintech, the opportunity is threefold. Platforms are a great channel to access workers with low acquisition costs. Second, the work data is a single game-changing factor for underwriting these workers. Third, being able to deduct our repayment from source during platform payouts allows us to secure our business model.”

    Badal Malick, Co-founder of Karmalife, a fintech providing credit and other financial services to gig workers in India

     

    Additional Resources

    VIDEO PLAYLISTS 

    Platform Workers

    A collection of videos featuring gig workers on different platforms sharing the importance and benefits of accessing additional financial services such as loans, savings, and insurance to ensure a secure future.

    IMMERSIVE STORY

    Financial Inclusion for Digital Platform Workers

    Learn about platform workers and their financial services needs through the stories of platform workers, as captured in this collection of photos and videos.

    Blog

    Regular Savings from Irregular Income: How Platforms Can Help

    CGAP partnered with fintechs and platforms across Sub-Saharan Africa to understand how they are using digital rails to offer savings products to low-income gig workers. Here, we share what we found.
    Blog

    On Gig Platforms, Women Workers Face Triple Barriers to Inclusion

    The type of work that women do on gig platforms makes it harder to connect them to financial services that will translate their income into longer-term gains. We studied six platforms to understand why fintech innovation does not reach women workers.
    Blog

    Maturing India Stack Drives Digital Financial Inclusion of Gig Workers

    India Stack, India’s robust DPI, supports a host of financial services products for harder-to-reach segments like gig workers – a good example for other countries that want to leverage digitization of work for financial inclusion of informal workers.
    Blog Series

    Financial Services for Platform Workers: The Current State and Work Ahead

    A diverse set of individuals and microenterprises generate their livelihoods through digital platforms, growing fast in emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). In this blog series, CGAP unpacks its extensive research with platform workers, platforms, and financial

    Events

    Financial Services for Platform Workers: Fulfilling the Demand

    Speakers highlighted key findings from a CGAP publication on the demand for and supply of financial services for platform workers/sellers, based on detailed qualitative research in five countries.