Roscas offers a low‑tech group and individual savings platform that operates through WhatsApp, USSD, IVR and mobile apps, allowing informal community groups to create, track and disburse pooled funds. The service also delivers on‑demand financial‑literacy content and real‑time balance notifications, helping low‑income savers build financial resilience via channels that work on basic phones.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Many low‑income communities and informal workers lack convenient, trusted tools to organize collective savings and receive financial education, leading to limited financial resilience and exclusion from formal financial services.
Solution
Roscas delivers a community‑driven savings product that lets groups create and manage pooled or individual savings through channels that are already widely used in the region, such as WhatsApp, USSD, IVR and native mobile apps. The platform provides on‑demand financial‑literacy content to improve members’ understanding of budgeting, saving, and risk management. By aggregating contributions from over 130 000 members and tracking more than $32 million in collective savings, Roscas enables groups to leverage their numbers for greater financial security while remaining accessible via low‑tech interfaces that work on basic phones and smartphones alike.
Target Audience
Primary users are informal community groups and individual savers in low‑income regions, as well as NGOs and micro‑finance organizations seeking to provide accessible savings solutions to their constituencies.
Features
- Multichannel access via WhatsApp bots, USSD menus, IVR calls, and native mobile applications for maximum reach in low‑connectivity environments
- Group savings management tools that support the creation, tracking, and disbursement of pooled funds across multiple concurrent groups
- Individual savings accounts with simple deposit and withdrawal workflows integrated into the same channels
- Embedded financial‑literacy modules delivered as short messages or audio clips, customizable in frequency (2–5 times per week)
- Real‑time balance monitoring and transaction notifications sent through the user’s chosen channel
- Open integration options for NGOs, micro‑finance institutions, and other partners to demonstrate the product or onboard members