CREATING THE ‘LINKEDIN’ FOR THE LINKEDOUTHow to Enable Job Matching and Career Identity in the Informal Labor Sector

#GYEO Summit September 29, 2017

Chloe Stull-LaneDirector

Impact Labs@ChloeStullLane

Scott OnderManaging Director

Social Venture Fund@ScottOnder

Adam GrunewaldCEOLynk

@Lynk_Kenya

‘’LINKEDIN’ FOR THE LINKEDOUT

Flow of today’s session

● Introductions

● Approaches to supporting entrepreneurs with creative ideas for youth employment – Social Venture Fund and Impact Labs

● Optimizing the informal sector with Lynk

● Rapid solution prototyping exercise

● Learn about Lynk’s solution

SOCIAL VENTURE FUNDInvesting in Bold Solutions

• 4,800+ staff, 93% of whom are local

• 42 country global footprint with 130+ field offices

• $500M+ in annual programming

• Technical expertise across many domains

• Linkages to local communities and markets

• Strong, long-term relationships with key government actors, private sector entities, and other influencers

• Advisory support from seasoned entrepreneurs, investors, and technology experts on the Social Ventures team and our external partners

Mercy Corps’ Global PlatformSOCIAL VENTURES

To accelerate portfolio companies to scale up:

Sectoral FocusSOCIAL VENTURE FUND

Frontier Financial Inclusion

Smallholder Agriculture

Last-mile Distribution &

Logistics

Youth Training & Employment

Access to financial services enables progress in multiple sectors, including agriculture and SME development.

Digital delivery offers a way in which these services can be provided cost-effectively and to a wider market.

2.5 billion people in poor countries count on the food and agriculture sector for their livelihoods.

Technology & finance companies are providing farmers with products & services to increase their productivity and incomes.

Under-developed infrastructure and distribution channels make it difficult to reach last-mile communities.

Companies offering improved distribution and logistics approaches enable beneficial goods and services to reach low-income consumers in rural and urban communities.

Youth unemployment is widespread and there are skill gaps, particularly in rapidly urbanizing areas.

Enterprises are developing innovative ways to train youth and connect them with employment opportunities.

The Future of Work

Skills Development, Assessment & Credentials

Education and vocational training systems are not equipping individuals with the skills needed by the employers. Refugees lack proof of education and work history, limiting access to income generation opportunities.

Dozens of startups are emerging that allow marginalized individuals to acquire marketable skills that lead to employment and track their employment history.

Job Matching Platforms

Jobs and skills are available, but employers and un(der)employed individuals often fail to connect efficiently, if at all. There is a lack of matching between jobs & skills.

Platforms connecting disadvantaged youth with employers in the formal and informal markets are becoming increasingly more sophisticated and impactful.

Digital Jobs & Distributed Manufacturing

Trends in micro-work, micro-manufacturing, transparent online marketplaces, and small run shipping are paving the way for the humanizing of distributed work and the reinvention of the global supply chain.

This shift is in its infancy, but we believe that distributed work and manufacturing represent a massive opportunity to tap into the nascent talent of migrant and refugee communities.

YOUTH TRAINING & EMPLOYMENT

Current Portfolio: Asia & Latin AmericaSOCIAL VENTURE FUND PORTFOLIO

Vasham provides Indonesian smallholder farmers with input and working capital loans, advisory, and market linkages they need to achieve significantly better standards of living. Jakarta, Indonesia; Series A

Wobe is a digital platform that enables anyone with a smartphone to become a sales agent for prepaid phone credits, prepaid utilities, and other offline-to-online payment transactions. Jakarta, Indonesia

Agruppa leverages mobile technology to streamline the complex supply chains of key food items in Colombia by connecting produce farmers directly to mom-and-pop shops in low-income neighborhoods.Bogotá, Colombia; Seed Round

Suyo is a public benefit corporation that unlocks the transformational impact of secure property rights by making it easier and more affordable for low-income families to formalize their property. Bogotá, Colombia; Seed Round

LiftIt seamlessly connects drivers and prospective shippers through a reliable and competitively-priced, last-mile distribution and logistics platform. It helps individual truck drivers to optimize routes, access new service opportunities, and maximize their carrying capacity and facilitates logistics for rural businesses, rural producers (farmers), and socially-beneficial product distributors/manufacturers. Bogotá, Colombia, Seed

Current Portfolio: East AfricaSOCIAL VENTURE FUND PORTFOLIO

NewLight Africa / Heya is a direct marketing and distribution company that sells socially beneficial products to the rural poor and increases affordability through pay-as-you-go financing. Nairobi, Kenya; Angel/Seed Round

Lynk is a two-sided, online marketplace connecting youth in the informal sector with skill training and job opportunities in East Africa. Nairobi, Kenya; Seed Round

FarmDrive expands access to credit to underserved smallholder farmers by providing partner financial institutions with innovative credit profiles used for real-time credit underwriting. Nairobi, Kenya; Seed Round

SokoWatch is a last-mile distribution company that makes it possible for people in underserved communities to affordably access the health, sanitation, and everyday household products they need to live healthy, productive lives.Nairobi, Kenya; Seed Round

Arifu is a mobile training solution that provides people at the base of the income pyramid (BoP) with access to needed information, skills development, and products and services. Nairobi, Kenya; Seed Round

Innovation Investment AllianceINNOVATION INVESTMENT ALLIANCE PORTFOLIO

IMPACT LABSCatalyzing creative tech solutions to youth employment

IMPACT LABS

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What we do: tackle youth unemployment with technologyOver 73 million young adults are out of work, and three times as many are underemployed

Sources: Jordan Department of Statistic; via http://inform.gov.jo, Brookings Institute, ieconomics https://ieconomics.com, McKinsey, World Bank

Middle East

Three out of four women are out of the workforce

44% of women actively seeking work are unemployed, almost double the rate for young men

One third of Jordanians are youth, and 34% are unemployed

Eastern Africa

Youth population is highest in the world, and growing rapidly Informal sector is largest employer for women and youth; 78% in Kenya

Youth unemployment in Kenya is over 20% in comparison to its neighbors at 2-10%

Technology-enabled solutions can unlock business and labor market constraints: job creation, job matching and skills for the future of work

IMPACT LABS

What we do: unlock growth potential of people and business

Analysis

Intervention Clusters

Innovation Mechanism

Impact Investment

Lear

n &

Ada

pt

High potential

opportunities

Co-creation & market

strengthening

Identify and test creative, technology-enhanced solutions that unlock constraints to youth employment through partnership engagements

Tailo

red

supp

ort

Technical assistance

Mercy Corps Teams

Google Fellows and Volunteers

Expert Consultants

Financial assistance

Impact Labs Grant

Social Ventures Investment

Grants, loans and investment from other

partners

IMPACT LABS

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How we work: intervention clusters and potential partners in JordanTalent Management

IdeationGig Work through

Digital MarketplacesBlue Collar Job

Matching

Lynk is Working

~50,000,000 KSHs ($500k) transferred to professionals

6000+ jobs delivered

12 jobs per customer on average

1,300 workers enrolled in platform

82% repeat customers

Rapid Solution Prototyping...with Technology!

The Problem: Being on time and cleaning up● Biggest non vocational complaints from customers are about workers

showing up late and leaving a mess

○ In more than 70% of “gigs” informal sector workers arrive late!

Conditional Automated SMS messages

➔ Hundreds of automated SMS messages tied to dynamic conditions

➔ Removing obstacles to success ➔ SMS allows us to reach the lowest

common denominator of connection

The Problem: Scheduling visits and interviews● Employers struggle to coordinate times for meetings or interviews with

potential workers

● Most workers do not maintain calendars and often forget scheduled appointments

● Workers often overcommit to appointments without accounting for traffic

Automated time-slot scheduling

➔ Customers/Employers easily suggest times

➔ Workers see available times via automated SMS and confirm

➔ Customers/Employers receive automated confirmation

The Problem● Chefs are not catering companies! They struggle with

○ Pricing strategy○ Coordination○ Portioning

● Chefs agree to prepare meals that they are not experienced in to appease clients

● Chefs struggle

“Pre Prix”Pre-Fab Prix-Fixe Meals

➔ Chefs propose lots of fixed item menus

➔ Prices are set based on # of people

➔ Customers easily browse, select, and

book “meals”

The Problem….

IS NOT

IS NOT

Customized Request flow

➔ Series of conditional questions designed to understand job scope

➔ Helps customers better define their ask

➔ Request flows map to worker skills