Imagine you’re in your living room, enjoying your morning coffee, when the phone rings. The voice on the other side of the line tells you -as if you were in a Hollywood movie- that you’ve inherited 50,000 dollars from an unknown relative. The question I ask you is: would you know what to do with that money? What’s the best way of investing it? Maybe it’s time to buy that car you’ve always wanted, or book that vacation for the whole family that you had planned years ago. Or maybe, you have no idea what the best way is to correctly manage that money.

Don’t worry, most people wouldn’t know either. That’s precisely why Víctor Morales and his team of entrepreneurs founded Alfi, a digital platform specifically designed to educate people from all over the world about financial sustainability.

Motivated by Latin America’s economic inequality, and having lived this inequity firsthand, Alfi’s team looked for a new and innovative way to tackle this issue.

“We want to break with the topic of inequality in Latin America from the standpoint of economic inequality. Especially, bringing more economic wellness for people in the region. We feel like the problem’s not being treated the way it should be, the solutions are not having the impact they should, and we think there’s a better way, and that’s how Alfi was born,” Morales explained.

Alfi’s first version was a board game that was used to prove a model of fun, different and dynamic financial education. Then, it evolved into a mobile app, available for download on all digital platforms. “It was a way of addressing a global issue and we had great feedback,” Morales added, who serves as CEO of the company.

When you download Alfi on your smartphone and create an account, you’re launched into a vast world of financial inclusion and education. Based on real products, the app offers you different ways to learn how to make good financial decisions through gaming, classes, missions and other techniques, all while you connect and compete with players around the world.

Alfi participated in the 15th edition of TIC Americas, winning first place on the Startup Challenge category. Both Morales and Andrea Segura, Alfi’s COO, commented on the benefits and effects that winning the competition had on the company.

“The prestige has been very timely. It gives us more value with governments, and also with all the different actors who we’re working and partnering with. It gives us a new way to reach our ultimate goal, which is that different sides validate Alfi as an instrument of change for financial sustainability.”

Today, Alfi works with different organizations and governments to promote and incentivize financial education. They have worked with the National Commission for the Pension System (CONSAR, for its name in Spanish) in Mexico since 2019. “This alliance promotes savings for retirement and all the benefits that Retirement Fund Managers have, so we can promote this right that all Mexicans have on a national level, and that people learn how to use it,” Segura commented.

Also, they collaborate with the Education Department of the State of Veracruz to start and reinforce financial knowledge from a young age.

“We know we can impact and validate certain segments, especially digital platforms, if we have more reach on younger audiences, but also we’re exploring different age groups so that this solution is accessible for all the public, from young people to older people,” Segura explained, who also added that it’s never too late to start learning about financial sustainability.

For Alfi’s founders, a good idea is enough to change the world. Find something you’re passionate about, and don’t give up until your community, your country, and ultimately the world is a better place than it was yesterday. That is Alfi’s driving force, and that is why they were the winners of the Startup Challenge in TIC Americas.