David del Ser

I'm a serial entrepreneur, having co-founded a number of social enterprises of various types. Today, as Chief Innovation Officer at the impact innovation firm BFA Global, I focus on evolving our business towards new areas. In the last couple of years, we've focused on the intersection between fintech and climate resilience. We facilitated the birth of the DF4CR ecosystem and I am now busy starting TECA, a venture launcher building a bridge between the worlds of inclusive fintech, climate and conservation. In the past I founded and ran Catalyst Fund, an accelerator for inclusive fintech startups that has supported 61 companies, including impressively successful ones such as Chipper Cash, Wasoko and FarMart. Catalyst Fund has been supported by JPMC, FCDO, PayPal and Gates Foundatoin. I also led the operations at our FIBR program, funded by the MasterCard Foundation, organizing implementation projects for more mature partners like Zola, PEG Africa or Lendable. We produced the first report on AI for Financial Inclusion and deployed the first churn management system in the paygo solar industry. Before BFA, I founded and grew Frogtek, a pioneering social venture that uses smartphones and data to empower Mexican shopkeepers: through predictions and better inventory management, their revenues grow 15% annually. Prior to Frogtek and while a student at Columbia, I launched Microlumbia, the first impact fund operated by students. I’ve been lucky to expand my mind through an MBA at Columbia Business School in New York, a Masters in Computer Vision at ENST-Paris and a Telecom engineering degree at UPM-Madrid (I’m also grateful for all the learning I will never put to practical use).