Today it was announced that fintech startup Juvo has partnered with communications company Cable & Wireless in order to bring better engagement and financial inclusion to prepaid mobile subscribers in 15 countries across the Caribbean.

“Across all the geographies where prepaid is dominant, top-ups tend to last a few days a time, so consumers are only [active] around 21, 22 days a month,” says Juvo SVP of Business Development Gabriel Gallegos. “That’s a nine-day gap because the consumers are out of balance, and of course it’s a gap that the operator wants to fill.”

Juvo’s Identity Scoring technology, where the transactions and spending pattern of a consumer form their “identity,” which includes how much credit they could possibly be forwarded, will be available within the Flow Lend mobile app.

The data analytics and identity scoring technology that Juvo has provided within the app will then allow Cable and Wireless (or Flow, depending on which market the company is operating in) to build portfolios based on individual consumer data in order to provide better engagement through the offering of services like immediate credit extensions; something which will not only bridge the 9-day mobile gap but will provide consumers with more access to financial services.

“It creates a level of comfort on the subscriber’s part, that the operator understands them,” says Gallegos. “It’s a higher amount of spend, and it is continuous engagement.”

As prepaid is the primary form of funding communications, it is a good step forward to financial inclusion for those consumers, though of course financial inclusion is a global problem. According to the 2016 Financially Underserved Market Size Study released today by CFSI and Core Innovation Capital, there are 54 million adults in the U.S. who are barred from using what the report terms “mainstream financial products” due to factors such as income volatility.

According to CFSI’s report, which breaks down the needs of “underserved” consumers by looking at factors such as usage numbers for 28 different financial products, there are approximately 121 million U.S. adults today which are “credit-challenged;” meaning they have subprime or low credit scores, or no credit scores at all.

“We are seeing more spending on [things like] subprime credit loans,” says John Thompson, senior vice president for CFSI. “The question is, will this shift start to change the makeup of how consumers can use credit?”