MPower Ventures
Austin, Tex.
Website
Founded: 2006
Employees: 140
2009 revenue: $2 million
Estimated 2010 revenue: $15 million
In their previous business, NetSpend, brothers Roy Sosa, 39, and Bertrand Sosa, 35, sold prepaid bank cards to unbanked customers in the U.S. Now they want to help expand access to financial services for a market that they describe as 3 billion people across the globe with mobile phones but no bank accounts. Their venture capital firm, MPower Ventures, founded in 2006, has a portfolio of four companies, mostly grown from scratch by the Sosas with that goal in mind. They include a mobile payments company, a service that lets retail stores act as bank branches to reach underserved markets in the developing world, and an asset management firm designed to let people with meager savings buy into mutual funds. Altogether, MPower companies have 1 million customers across the world, Roy Sosa says. The goal is to offer low-cost banking services to customers who otherwise would not have access to financial services. "Alternative financial services for the most part have been very predatory," Sosa says. MPower aims to change that. The Sosas have raised $100 million, including personal investments and funds from other high-net-worth individuals. They are looking to raise a second fund of the same size.
