Aloi

Sonika co-founded Aloi with Tiffany Tong as a social enterprise building credible financial trust in green micro-entrepreneurs and facilitating their access to affordable financing options through its solutions. Aloi’s platform helps micro-entrepreneurs who otherwise lack a formal credit history to track their loan utilisation and income, data which can then be used by Aloi’s commercial partners to provide formal loans. The organisation also engages in financial literacy training for micro-entrepreneurs to support effective loan utilisation. The company is working to become a last-mile digital bank in Nepal.

Sonika won One Young World’s LEAD2030 Challenge with Standard Chartered Ventures in 2020. The team at Standard Chartered connected Sonika with its Nepal branch, which developed into Aloi’s first partnership with a commercial bank. This recognition helped establish Aloi in the Nepalese market and laid the foundations for greater collaboration with other financial institutions.

Aloi has 2,300 active users, primarily women, who have so far secured $800,000 in formal loans. All users receive financial and digital literacy training, as well as business management training, to make them less susceptible to loan sharks. The organisation currently has partnerships with six commercial banks in Nepal. 70% of Aloi users are in the sustainable agricultural sector, while 30% are active in the electric vehicle market with Aloi currently supporting 135 electric vehicles. Aloi will be working with 3,000 farmers in the coffee and dairy sectors in 2024, training them in climate-smart agriculture and accessing scale-up financing. Sonika is also looking to expand Aloi’s operations to Indonesia.

“I went to One Young World as a Standard Chartered Ventures LEAD2030 Winner, and because of it we got connected with Standard Chartered bank in Nepal. That's how we got our first commercial bank contract for Aloi and that's still ongoing.”