Today we’d like to introduce you to Jake Seltzer.
Hi Jake, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born and raised in Wellington, Florida. I am a 26-year-old FinTech entrepreneur who has extensive knowledge of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and web3 technologies. My journey begins in India in January 2019 when I was attending one of my closest friend’s weddings for what was supposed to a be one-week trip. It was at this wedding that I met Kunal Karani, a gentleman who was dating the best woman at the wedding.
Kunal also worked in the web3 space building cryptocurrency exchanges and KYC software. Kunal and I quickly took a liking to one another(this will play a major role in the story). It was the first time in my life I had seen true poverty and wealth inequality. Upon speaking with many people in India from the staff at hotels, to uber drivers, to waitresses, to regular folks you come across in travel one of the major unignorable issues that seemed constant was the disparity in banking services offered.
I ended up extending my trip by a month to further understand Indian culture, to better understand systems in low and middle-income countries, and assess financial literacy. I went to 13 cities all across India from Mumbai to Jaipur to Agra to New Dehli to Surat. My knowledge of blockchain technology and decentralized finance(Defi) quickly made me realize that I could do something to change these people’s lives.
I returned in February 2019 more motivated than ever. However, I realized that I could not build out or do what I wanted without putting together a proper team of individuals who not only understood rural finance but also understood blockchain technologies and analytics. I reached out to Kunal to ask if he would be willing to come aboard as my co-founder and be my person on the ground in India and assist in the development of the platform.
Shortly after Kunal, myself, and one additional developer friend we had Ayush Shukla (future CTO of Finance Blocks) got to work on what would be a core banking solution built on the blockchain, Finance Blocks. We would spend the next year studying the markets, building a product, speaking with institutions, speaking with the finance ministry, and speaking with the agriculture ministry(before the newly formed rural finance ministry the agriculture ministry oversaw banking).
On July 18th, 2019 my mentor & best friend my father, Jerry Seltzer would suddenly pass from a massive heart attack. I wouldn’t be where I am today without acknowledging his death because in my grief I found the strength to build and innovate. It was incredibly tough for me but Finance Blocks became my escape.
January 2020, Covid hits. A true nightmare turned into reality for India. Statistically speaking nowhere in the world comes close to India. Since February 2020 countries are forecasted to have the highest cumulative total deaths: India 2,857,621 more than the next 3 nations combined and nearly triple the second nation, the United States 925,770, Brazil 640,000, and Russia 625,000. It was a humanitarian crisis.
In a lot of places in Indian culture, the burial process requires the body to be cremated. The crematoriums were so full that families were often forced to do it themselves. This covid pandemic only made our platform that much more necessary. This motivated us. We would often work 20 hours a day through the lockdown.
Fast forward two years and a lot of long hours to January 2022. Finance Blocks is now fully developed and going for beta testing within two months. We started an office in Los Angeles, hired a team full of talented and passionate individuals from all backgrounds, and began seeking $35 million in capital from venture firms.
March 2022, Finance Blocks begins its beta testing with its platform and mobile application. We began in Madhya Pradesh, India with 22,000 users in two financial institutions. The goal is to test the vulnerabilities of the platform, and scalability, and seeing generally how the users respond to the interface of the application. It’s during this phase that we begin to have serious interest from venture funds.
In May 2022, Finance Blocks attends Permissionless, a web3 conference at the palm beach convention center. It is here that we announce our 25 million dollar capital commitment from global emerging markets or GEM Digital a Bahamas-based digital assets investment firm.
This capital commitment plays an integral part in our expansion in India, as well as Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Kenya, and Ghana. These funds will allow us to continue developing our technology, expand our development team, onboard over three million users, raise awareness about financial products and services, and allow charitable contributions of water and power to the areas in which we operate.
Now July 2022, Finance Blocks is on pace to become the world’s largest rural financial banking platform and enable financial inclusion for up to five million users within the next 36 months. Currently a top 3000 project in the cryptocurrency market already, Finance Blocks is also quickly on pace to become a top 200 crypto project in the world.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road. We have faced a lot of challenges along the way. Unfortunately, a lot of people take advantage of these rural users and don’t want to see change. On top of that, we have to face corruption, lack of documents and KYC, institutional red-tapism, and many more. Essentially every step of the way from working with regulators to working with institutions has been difficult.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are Finance Blocks, a Los Angeles-based blockchain-powered fintech platform that was established in 2019. We are aiming to promote financial inclusion of the unbanked by enabling Rural Financial Institutions to maximize their efficiency and impact. Despite all the infrastructural and technological developments in the financial sector globally, 25% of the world’s population still does not have access to basic financial services such as bank accounts.
This population relies on informal financial systems such as moneylenders, cooperative credit societies, and rural financial institutions (RFIs) to access credit in times of need. The complexity of procedures and inefficient legacy systems stand in the way of rural consumers’ availing credit opportunities and prevent RFIs from maximizing their potential. Often there is a lack of identity documents, credit scores, and awareness of financial solutions. To combat these problems in rural economies, Finance Blocks has developed a platform that will serve both RFIs and the unbanked.
For RFIs, Finance Blocks has developed a platform that will help them switch from paper-based legacy systems to a secure, easy-to-use, and efficient digital system for all their processes. RFIs will be able to create unique digital identities for all their customers, compute their credit scores, and manage their financial data, loans, FDs, savings accounts, and more on a single platform. They will also be able to amplify the reach of their products and services with the in-built marketing functionalities of the dashboard.
For users, Finance Blocks has an app that will help them stay updated about their financial activity such as withdrawals, deposits, transactions, loan EMIs, and interest on FDs. The app will provide instantaneous updates about any changes that occur to their accounts with RFIs. The app will also report information about new financial products and services relevant to the needs of the users. Based on the age of their account and financial activity, users will be given Smart Credit Scores computed by blockchain-powered Smart Contracts.
Blockchain technology is an integral component of the solution Finance Blocks presents. The role of the platform is to enable the immutable recording of all transaction data, ensuring transparency and accountability. This will enhance the efficiency of operations by automating banking processes. The use of a blockchain will also enable RFIs to interact and transact with other members on the Finance Blocks platform seamlessly and securely.
The COVID-19 pandemic has wittingly or unwittingly turned into a powerful booster of digital financial services around the world. Throughout 2020, a substantial number of new accounts were created worldwide that were equipped with mobile monetary, fintech, and online banking services.
Growth in internet usage, smartphone penetration, and easy-to-setup-and-use financial apps have led to the rise of cashless societies. Bearing in mind the challenges due to Covid-19, Finance Blocks offers key features for our customers and RFIs like our mobile application, domain name, and dashboard creation to facilitate contactless banking operations. Finance Blocks distinguishes itself from other projects by digitizing these institutions at no cost to the institutions themselves.
We are a business driven by change. We want to help change the way digital services and solutions are offered through rural financial institutions so that the end users can positively benefit. We feel that we are different from our competitors because we are not driven by profits or held to making investors money. We truly believe that our platform can change the socioeconomic status of millions of people.
We’d love to hear what you think about risk-taking.
A 24-year-old kid with no formal background in finance goes to India in 2019 for a month and sees a need for major change. Creates the solution for the change over 3 years and takes on an entire global industry to change the way rural finance is offered to 100s of millions of rural users worldwide and succeeds.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://financeblocks.io/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/financeblocks/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/FinanceBlocks
- Youtube: https://www.tiktok.com/@financeblocks
- Other: https://t.me/joinfinanceblocks
