Sempo revolutionises aid by allowing NGOs to give cash directly to those affected by crisis.

The best way to help vulnerable people during disasters, backed by decades of research, is to simply give people money, no strings attached. It’s logistically efficient, transparent for donors and empowers individuals who have just lost everything. The problem is it’s hard to accurately find vulnerable people and when you do find them, even harder to get money to them as many are unbanked.

Founded by young Australian entrepreneurs Tristan Cole (20) and Nick Williams (26), Sempo is an end-to-end platform for NGOs to rapidly and efficiently get cash-aid to people affected by humanitarian crises. We solve beneficiary identification, cash disbursement and program monitoring in one seamless platform. This means NGOs can spend less resources and time to find vulnerable people and more helping them. Sempo is launching its first pilot, in partnership with Arcenciel, to deliver aid to Syrian refugees in Lebanon and is backed by Australia’s top investors.

Founders

• Tristan Cole, 20 year old founder who previously built an e-business from $0 to $250k revenue while still in high-school. Self-taught in finance and full-stack software development.
• Nick Williams, 26, with a background in Engineering for Humanitarian Development and Astrophysics. Previously co-founded Dysrupt Labs, which was featured by The Economist and Forbes shortly after launch.

Key Advisor

• Paula Gil Baizan, is the go-to person globally for innovation in cash programming. Previously World Vision’s Global Director of Cash Programming and has over 14 years international experience in using cash grants as a dignified way to empower people in need out of poverty.

Investors

• Blackbird Ventures
• Startmate
• H2 Ventures

Why cash transfers are the future

When a disaster occurs, the traditional response is to ship emergency supplies from the other side of the planet, even when local markets are operational. This is ineffective - 70% of Syrian refugees sold the aid they were given to buy what they actually need. Even now, the myth persists that people who are given cash will spend it in an inappropriate manner. All the research proves otherwise.

In fact, cash is far better than traditional aid for the long-term recovery of an affected community. When communities are flooded with supplies, local shopkeepers who survived the initial disaster struggle to compete with NGOs that are giving away things for free. Many ultimately go out of business. When these NGOs leave, communities find themselves both without supplies, or anywhere to buy them. Cash has the opposite effect - it keeps businesses that survived the disaster running, and provides a reason for new ones to be created.

Luckily, the status quo is changing. Cash transfers are now becoming the baseline of humanitarian aid.

“The first question now considered by DFAT is always… if not cash, why not?” DFAT Guidance Note, December 2017.

In 2015, cash transfer made up only 5% of humanitarian spending - now cash transfers are 10.3% of the $30 Billion USD spent on humanitarian aid in 2017.

The pressure is on for NGOs to start doing more cash transfers and Sempo exists to do just that.

The story behind how Sempo started