Low- tech idea meets fintech

Seattle entrepreneur adapts savings groups to the digital age

Jeremy Showalter has long been intrigued by the power of people pooling funds together in savings groups.

Jeremy Showalter

Tens of millions of people in more than 70 countries take part in these groups. They have long been an important development tool promoted by charities such as Hope International and MEDA.

Showalter saw firsthand how saving together could be helpful. Several generations of his family set up a group through an Indiana credit union in the early 2000s. The group lasted for more than a decade and “was incredibly helpful for all (of) our lives,” he recalls.

In 2008, he began talking with friends about starting a company to promote such groups. He pitched the concept at a MEDA convention, but the idea never got traction.

Showalter is a tech industry veteran who worked with Microsoft in a variety of roles for more than 13 years. He became CEO of Vietnam-based Pique, a firm that provides artificial intelligence powered product and content recommendations, in late 2019. Pique was acquired by Vietnamese e-wallet company MoMo in June.

Since Showalter first imagined launching a business around savings groups, advances in technology have made his idea more feasible. Smartphones now allow widespread connections. Cloud computing reduces the cost of information storage.

Showalter and two friends have named their venture 3Locks. The name refers to the three locks that are used on savings boxes in village savings and loans programs. Showalter, a MEDA board member, saw these while visiting the Jordan Valley Links MEDA project in early 2019.

Weave savings is the product 3Locks is developing to support savings groups.

The Weave name could be seen as a reference to Ecclesiastes 4:12. That Bible passage states that “a cord of three strands is not easily broken.”

Showalter admits that this Biblical principle underlines what he hopes Weave can help do.

But he points to Isaiah 61, a section of scripture that Jesus is quoted reading in the synagogue (in Luke 4). The passage predicts good news for the oppressed. These people will rebuild and renew their situations, he noted.

Savings groups are about relational capital, what they enable for the communities that form them, he said. He hopes savings groups can reduce the economic oppression that exists through payday loans and title loans (where people get cash advances by putting their car or house up as collateral).

These loans generate $12 billion in fees annually in the US.

Human isolation, lack of trust, pride, and shame lead people to turn to these expensive lenders, he said.

Weave is not about fancy ways to move money. The product is just a method of enabling groups to form, regardless of where members are located, he said. Like other fintech firms, it will not actually handle money, but will partner with financial institutions “to enable services others haven’t done well.”

A business model for Weave arrived last year. Andrew Cho, one of Showalter’s co-founders, was looking for a way to support his employees. The product will make money in the business-to-business marketplace, with a “freemium” version available for individuals.

Showalter thinks it will be useful for non-profits and faithbased communities as well. “Hopefully we’ve seen in the past couple of years (that) more relationships is what we need.”

Weave will have a beta (test) product available this fall, he said. .