SINGAPORE — The Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN), together with the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA), announced the winners of the Global Impact Champions Awards for Financial Health 2025 at the Singapore FinTech Festival. This year’s winners — Syfe, Universal Pensions, and Quipu — highlight how financial-services innovation can drive inclusion, resilience, and long-term security for underserved populations around the world.

Selected from 130 applicants across 39 countries, including many venture-backed innovators, the three winners were chosen for their measurable contributions to improving day-to-day money management, emergency preparedness, and long-term financial confidence for individuals and communities — especially those traditionally excluded from formal financial systems.

Financial Health as a Foundation for Equity

The Awards were established to spotlight fintech solutions that address a persistent global challenge: billions of people still struggle with basic financial security, despite growing digital access. Effective financial health is closely tied to gender equality, workplace inclusion, and social mobility — all core themes for Collective for Equality.

By supporting solutions that strengthen resilience, build financial safety nets, and enable long-term planning, the Awards underline how fintech can help level the playing field for women, informal workers, low-income communities, and micro-entrepreneurs globally.

GFTN’s global network of policymakers, investors, and industry leaders aims to amplify innovations that close these gaps and ensure that economic progress is equitable, sustainable, and inclusive.

Winners Building Pathways to Inclusive Financial Futures

Syfe (Singapore)

Syfe’s investment and savings platform is designed to make wealth-building accessible for everyday individuals — including first-time investors, young professionals, and women who are underrepresented in investing. Through data-driven insights, financial literacy tools, and low-cost investing solutions, Syfe supports financial confidence and long-term planning.

Universal Pensions (Singapore/India)

Universal Pensions focuses on one of the most overlooked segments in global finance: informal workers, particularly women, who often lack access to stable retirement systems. By partnering with governments and leveraging digital tools, it has enabled millions to start building pension savings. Its “gift-a-pension” model helps families secure the financial futures of elderly relatives, domestic workers, gig workers, and other vulnerable groups.

Quipu (Latin America)

Quipu uses AI and alternative data to help micro and small entrepreneurs — especially women-led informal businesses — access credit, cash-flow tools, and financial planning support. By converting non-traditional data into credit insights, Quipu enables entrepreneurs to build credit histories and gain access to formal banking systems, strengthening economic resilience from the ground up.

Global Leaders Stress the Importance of Financial Health for Inclusion

Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, in her role as UNSGSA, emphasised the broader societal impact of financial well-being: “Fintech solutions that help people manage money, build resilience, and plan for the future are essential for inclusive growth. These innovators show us how technology can advance financial health worldwide.”

GFTN’s Deputy Chairman Neil Parekh added that inequities persist despite progress: “1.4 billion adults remain unbanked, and half of adults in low- and middle-income economies cannot meet unexpected financial needs. Startups are showing us new pathways to close these gaps with purpose and empathy.”

The winning fintechs will now gain access to GFTN’s global platforms, investment opportunities, and collaborative networks to scale their impact. Beyond the awards, the initiative seeks to inspire more founders to build technologies that strengthen financial health as a foundation for equality and empowerment.

As financial inclusion evolves into a critical pillar of SDG-aligned development — particularly SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) — these innovators demonstrate how equitable access to financial tools is not only possible but essential for shaping fairer, more resilient societies.