Mission & Philosophy
MPOWER Labs, Inc. is a research and development incubator and business accelerator founded in 2006 as the first portfolio company of MPOWER Ventures, LP -- a double-bottom-line venture capital fund whose mission is to empower the world’s underserved. By working in partnership with MPOWER Ventures to accelerate the development of its portfolio companies as well as to identify and develop new product ideas in the same market space, the teams of MPOWER Labs are catalysts in the realization of global solutions for the underserved.
The collaborative model between MPOWER Ventures and MPOWER Labs was created from the belief that capital alone is not sufficient to achieve rapid growth and global scale of new products for the underserved; instead, by combining capital with shared infrastructure and resources, the portfolio companies of MPOWER Ventures are able to operate with maximum efficiency and achieve the fastest realization of both profit and social impact.
Our Focus
The mission of MPOWER Labs is to empower the underserved by accelerating the growth of businesses that bring new and needed products and services to this market. Currently, we are focused on the development of companies creating financial service products for the underserved, and we support a portfolio of companies whose innovative products and services are not only more convenient, secure, and affordable but also enable consumers to build long-term financial stability and achieve true financial empowerment.
Our Assets
In its partnership with MPOWER Ventures, MPOWER Labs provides three core assets:
(1) A Specialized Team of business experts who enable the portfolio companies to rapidly build and scale necessary core components, including: technology infrastructure, legal and compliance systems, risk analysis and data strategy, human resource management, marketing and branding, finance and operations, and business development.
(2) A Proprietary Set of Systems Infrastructure available for use by all portfolio companies, including: an advanced global payments processing platform connected to all the major payments networks, including both Visa and MasterCard; a fully-integrated customer service system with international call centers serving multiple languages; and, a rapid-deployment international fulfillment program with services for retail and direct-to-consumer products.
(3) A Research and Development Incubator experimenting in the creation of new products and services that will empower the world’s underserved. Through in-house research and research partnerships, MPOWER Labs seeks to understand the factors that have led to long-term market failures and exclusion in areas, such as financial services, health care, agriculture, and energy. Building upon this research, MPOWER Labs develops cutting-edge products to address those needs.