Ascend Nano

Just under 5 million people in Thailand, around 8% of its population, are unbanked. These are the hardest customers for banks to serve, with unstable incomes, few (if any) assets, and sparse financial records. Ascend Nano, a fintech firm under the CP Group umbrella, started its financial inclusion initiative in 2020: It leverages a customer’s digital presence—factors like mobile transactions and online purchases—to assess creditworthiness. Ascend Nano has now offered its “nano loans” to 2.5 million customers: 60% of customers use their loans to invest in income-generating activities. Ascend Nano says this helps wean customers away from informal and potentially predatory lenders, but it’s proved to be a smart bet for the company, too: The profitable initiative now contributes almost 20% of the larger Ascend Group’s revenue.