At Pesa, a fintech focused on remittance, the founders are acutely aware of how expensive, hard to access, and unreliable current remittance services can be, pushing individuals towards makeshift solutions like WhatsApp groups to move money.
Living in Canada since 2017 and observing the widespread use of such informal means among Africans in the diaspora led Tolulope Osho, Yusuf Yakubu, and Adewale Afolabi — all from Nigeria — to create innovative remittance solutions in 2021, focusing first on the remittance corridor from Canada to Africa, with ambitions to reach a worldwide audience.
This initiative coincided with a period when remittances to low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) have seen a 38% increase in the last six years, reaching $656 billion by the end of 2023, according to reports.
The World Bank predicts that remittances will continue to grow in 2024 and 2025, driven by the rising demand for swift, affordable, and dependable cross-border money transfer services. Importantly, the World Bank highlights that digital remittance platforms will play a crucial role in boosting remittance flows by reducing costs and increasing access to formal financial channels.
From the outset, Pesa aimed to facilitate the “most secure and quickest” money transfers and to “dissolve financial borders,” as CEO Osho explained to TechCrunch.
Pesa was designed as a multi-currency wallet, enabling users to send, receive, and manage various currencies (currently six).
Osho elaborates on their philosophy towards remittance, stating, “Your financial activities should continue seamlessly when you relocate; moving from Nigeria to Canada, for example, should not disrupt your financial connectivity back home. It should be as though you never left.”
“Our multi-currency wallet essentially allows you to carry your finances with you as effortlessly as carrying a wallet while moving between countries (Nigeria, Canada, the E.U, U.S, U.K, and Ghana),” he added.
Global Aspirations of Pesa
Pesa is on the brink of expanding to the United States, having successfully launched in 27 European countries. The fintech has also made strides in the U.K, through collaborations, as it seeks an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license which Osho believes will endow it with full banking capabilities, allowing for more affordable services, the holding and issuing of e-money for clients, and the development of additional offerings.
With a keen eye on global expansion, Pesa plans to leverage its increasing footprint to enable users in these new markets to transfer funds to its African outlets, including Nigeria and Ghana, as well as India — a recent addition. Entering India strategically opens doors to the globe’s top remittance receiver, expecting $129 billion by 2025 and is also the leading source of global migrants. Pesa’s enlargement into Sub-Saharan Africa, with remittances recently amounting to $54 billion, signals a robust approach to servicing regions like Nigeria and Kenya.
As Pesa plots its international growth, it is poised to intensify competition among digital remittance platforms, including recent contenders and established players like Wise and Zepz.
Amid advancing its global footprint, Pesa, currently inducted in the Fast Forward Venture Studio, and having largely bootstrapped since its inception, boasts of remarkable achievement including turning a profit within two years, processing over a million transactions worth $380 million, and amassing 60,000 users, with 30% actively engaging.
The team remains highly positive about their prospective impact in the new territories, along with plans for multi-currency cards among other innovations.
“Our focus is on growth, finalizing our global expansion and technological integrations. We anticipate our revenues to surge as we complete these milestones,” Yakubu shared.
Compiled by Techarena.au.
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