2022 Cohort Countdown – Introducing AGAM

Introducing AGAM International, one of the eight companies forming the cohort for Season 2 of the FinTech Wales Foundry: Validate, Raise & Scale Program.

UK-based AGAM International – Founded by Shabnam Wazed – is a next-generation #fintech advancing the lives and livelihoods of individuals and SMEs. Its platform is anchored in a dynamic credit scoring system (III), combining algorithms and financial education to create credit histories that unlock better futures. AGAM connects customers with innovative banking products such as salary advances, Buy-now-pay-later and embedded financing for SMEs.

When asked what inspired her to start AGAM International, Shabnam commented: “My career in financial inclusion allowed me to interview many unbanked individuals across industries who opened bank accounts for the first time. They felt empowered to have an account but a substantial majority had another problem- they felt it did not help their issue of indebtedness.

Debt was a deeper issue as these individuals had no access to banking, had no transaction history and were therefore excluded from bank loans. Meanwhile, they had limited scope on microfinance as those loans were only for entrepreneurial purposes. In case of any emergency, their only source was informal lenders with exorbitant interest rates as high as 45%.

I realised there was a fundamental lack of access to emergency loans for people who are fully capable of repaying but traditional credit-check methods fail to recognise them as a bankable asset class. The next step was to derive an alternative credit scoring index that can assess a person through character as opposed to collateral. That methodology is now called the Individual Independence Index (III) which enabled us to start AGAM.”

Stay tuned on our socials for updates on AGAM International’s journey as they Validate, Raise and Scale their venture throughout the Foundry Program, commencing 9th February 2022.