Our Values
In today’s economy, success and prosperity goes hand in hand with power and size. Giant companies exert massive influence for their own ends without being accountable for the consequences. Political figures can spin and mislead without comeback.
This isn’t fair.
There is a better way to support people who are trying to do the right thing, consistently doing a good job, acting responsibly towards their customers, partners, planet and community.
At hiveonline, we believe in levelling the playing field so the most excluded producers can achieve their potential. For us it’s just as important that we do this in the right way and work to deliver sustainable and responsible outcomes.
To deliver our mission, people need to trust us, and we need to trust each other. We do this through living our core values which are:
Honesty
In all of our actions we will be honest and truthful to the highest standard.
Curiosity
We actively seek out new knowledge, regularly query our assumptions and use experimentation to guide our decision making.
Collaboration
We will collaborate and share knowledge with one another and our peers to continually challenge our views and develop our understanding.
Diversity
We believe that if we are to change the world we need a good cross-section of humanity to join our mission. We celebrate and uphold diversity in all its forms.
Our Values in Action
Small businesses everywhere face the same problems establishing trust, getting access to credit and reaching markets efficiently. But in Africa, where 66% of adults are excluded from the financial system, and rural populations lack basic infrastructure and education, the challenge is much greater. So in 2019 we decided to focus on rural African markets. From there we can solve larger issues in developing economies, support aid relief programs and regulate produce markets. Our focus on curiosity and diversity give us the chance to grow further and think bigger.
Our team comes from all over, both professionally and geographically. We come from banks, NGO, consulting and research, and speak over 10 languages. We share our diverse knowledge and experiences with each other and partners like the UN, to build a sustainable community of innovation, collaboration and growth. Sofie, our CEO, advises central banks and the UN’s Sustainable Finance working groups and chairs the Edinburgh Futures Institute’s Industry Advisory Panel. She has shared her knowledge of applications of Fintech to sustainable development and financial inclusion to help develop decentralised approaches to sustainable community economies. By collaborating widely and gathering a diverse set of perspectives, we make our products better and impact on society more responsible.
The hiveonline team and board are passionate about the work we do, but we understand that work life and personal life need to be balanced, even when you’re trying to make the world a better place. Many of the team are parents and it is important to us that we support them by being flexible employers. hiveonline believes that diversity is critical to supporting our customers in the best way we can, and that includes supporting our team in their different lifestyle choices.
Some team members have interests that form a key part of who they are and what they bring to hiveonline. We have colleagues who are passionate about thinking sustainably, contributing to open industry research, singing in a choir or teaching girls to code. Recognising these interests and bringing them into the workplace when considering what we do or how work is a key way to ensure a healthy working environment and we avoid “group think”.
At hiveonline we strive to make sure that work and personal are two facets of each team member’s life in balance; without that we forget who we are and why we exist.