A socially empowering new mobile bank for Energisa

Collaborating with Energisa, one of Brazil's largest energy providers, we helped create Voltz, a brand new mobile banking solution usable by millions of previously 'unbanked' people.

A mobile bank to transform the livelihood of millions.

A public holding company owning 18 subsidiaries, Energisa is the biggest electricity provider in Brazil, serving nearly 16 million people.
Due to its diverse clientele, the company faces many challenges and complexities when it comes to collecting utility payments, especially considering the fact that, according to research conducted by Locomotiva Institute, 29% of Brazil's population do not own any type of bank account.
To help solve this complex challenge, Energisa selected Manyone SAO to lead a project that could revolutionise the payment journey of the client – especially for the citizens unfamiliar with basic banking operations.
Combining our strategic business vision with tools of innovation and design, we helped Energisa create and deploy Voltz, a digital fintech solution created to solve the puzzle of the “unbanked” market for the 5th biggest country in the world.

Simple activities, such as paying monthly utility bills become a challenging task, yet the right empathy-driven solution showed a potential domino effect that could reach, and positively impact the lives of millions.

When immersing ourselves in the payment journey of rural areas in Brazil, especially the one primarily made up of low-income people, Manyone SAO's team identified a business opportunity that could also serve as a social transformation springboard. Rural regions often lack the infrastructure to allow companies and institutions to simply reproduce the business and service models they operate in urban zones.

Our findings showed that those communities associate the internet with Whatsapp and Facebook.

This highlighted the massive need to simplify online solutions by applying user friendly screens and commands.

At the end of the project, we delivered 15 in-depth user journeys, ranging from utility bills payment to phone credit recharge.
Aside from the interface that resembles the already familiar Facebook and WhatApp chats, the digital bank also allows personal and business accounts to be under the same username, solving another problem for entrepreneurs and small business owners that can now easily manage their finances all in one place.
Since family is such a strong pillar of daily life in these areas, we also made it possible to split payments between household members, allowing full control over how bills are split.
With a humane and approachable vocabulary, users can engage with the Voltz app in a very similar way to what they already do with messaging apps and social media.

Positive balance

After successfully delivering Voltz’s toolkit, a branding guide, and the design system, this fintech solution, made by people and for the people, is expected to positively impact 5 million people by 2025.
To achieve this milestone, Energisa plans to extend its digital bank to 862 cities including those that have been historically neglected by the Brazilian banking market.
In an interview with Valor Econômico, Tiago Compagnoni, Voltz co-president, said that the idea is to “open digital and financial doors to those who, so far, could only experience one side of the internet, away from modern banking solutions”.
He also said that many of his current clients could not even get authorization to own a credit card – something that Voltz acknowledged by requiring little to no prerequisites to open an account.

Related

Client: Energisa
Topics: Products and Services, Branding and Communication, Finance
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