The World Bank has released figures showing that Egypt is the country that receives the highest amount of remittances in the MENA region. In 2015, the country received an estimated $19.7bn in remittances from around the world, of which $1.83bn was received from Egyptians residing in the UAE.
Remittances play an important role in the Egyptian economy, contributing to 6.8% of the country’s GDP in 2014.
Sunday, 21 August 2016
Remittances startup Ozaremit
Ozaremit recently secured a six-figure investment from three angel investors focused on the emerging markets. Thibault Launay, Romain Girbal and Célia Grémy are French investors who have an interest in early to mid-stage startups including an African classifieds service called Afrimalin that’s active in 8 Francophone countries.
According to the information shared by the Ozaremit co-founders Ibrahima Soumano and Takwana Tyaranini the three investors have collectively acquired a significant amount of equity in Ozaremit.
This capital will be used for product improvement (there’s work being done on the web interface and a mobile app is also in the pipeline) and some efforts at gaining visibility through an aggressive marketing campaign.
It’s also meant to open up Ozaremit to new services with focus areas set to be mobile money and goods (invoice payment) remittances. This fulfils the initial plans that the Ozaremit co-founders spoke of a few months ago.
Their service started off with one service focused on mobile (ie the airtime remittances) before jumping into the lucrative money transfer track.
The Ozaremit team says it’s confident that with the growth it is registering in users and revenue right now it will be able to secure more capital before the end of 2016. It is eyeing another 6 figure investment through the network of international business angels that it is working with.
If successful, the team says that its valuation should exceed 2 million euros by the beginning of 2017.
According to the information shared by the Ozaremit co-founders Ibrahima Soumano and Takwana Tyaranini the three investors have collectively acquired a significant amount of equity in Ozaremit.
This capital will be used for product improvement (there’s work being done on the web interface and a mobile app is also in the pipeline) and some efforts at gaining visibility through an aggressive marketing campaign.
It’s also meant to open up Ozaremit to new services with focus areas set to be mobile money and goods (invoice payment) remittances. This fulfils the initial plans that the Ozaremit co-founders spoke of a few months ago.
Their service started off with one service focused on mobile (ie the airtime remittances) before jumping into the lucrative money transfer track.
The Ozaremit team says it’s confident that with the growth it is registering in users and revenue right now it will be able to secure more capital before the end of 2016. It is eyeing another 6 figure investment through the network of international business angels that it is working with.
If successful, the team says that its valuation should exceed 2 million euros by the beginning of 2017.
Bitspark and Vitaxel
Bitspark, headquatered in Hong Kong, was founded in April 2014 and specialises in remittances services in the Asia Pacific region. It is also known for introducing the world’s first brick-and-mortar bitcoin remittance vendor in Hong Kong.
Bitspark has signed a Master Agreement with Vitaxel Group to enter the Malaysian market. The partnership will enable customers in Malaysia to access Bitspark’s full services at local money transfer outlets and provide an option for individuals to utilise mobile payments.
Bitspark has signed a Master Agreement with Vitaxel Group to enter the Malaysian market. The partnership will enable customers in Malaysia to access Bitspark’s full services at local money transfer outlets and provide an option for individuals to utilise mobile payments.
The partnership with Vitaxel will allow the startup to add Malaysia and MYR as a supported country and currency. Bitspark currently allows for remittances to the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam and has over 100,000 cash pickup locations.
Vitaxel, a market leader in the MLM and e-commerce space, has over 5,000 distributors in 16 countries in Asia. The firm is primarily engaged in the direct selling industry with an emphasis on travel, entertainment and lifestyle products and services.
For Bitspark, Malaysia’s remittance market represents a significant opportunity. In 2014, Malaysia – Indonesia was the largest remittance corridor in Southeast Asia. This is notably due to the high number of Indonesians working abroad in the region in countries such as Malaysia and Singapore.
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