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DIGITAL BANKING STARTUP OF THE MONTH Blazing a trail
IBS Journal meets Katharine Budd, Co-Founder, NOW Money, a new remittance app for the unbanked population of the UAE
Interview by Scott Thompson
yourself. I
BS Journal: Tell us about
Katharine Budd: My background is retail banking analytics, for UK and GCC banks, and my co-founder Ian was an investment banker. We’re old university friends (Exeter, UK), and made the decision to become business partners a couple of years ago after Ian visited me in Dubai, where I had been relocated for work.
Ian and I had both become intrigued by challenger banks in the UK, who provide a solution based around what a 21st century customer actually wants, but with the UK being over-banked already we were behind the curve. Our attention turned to the population of the UAE. We noticed that 70% were low-income migrant workers who don’t
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earn enough to open a bank account, but 98% own a smartphone, meaning we could build an app-based service for this segment.
These migrant workers live in the UAE and send the majority of their salary home to their families in countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines. They are charged high remittance costs by the current providers, meaning a proportionately high amount doesn’t even reach home.
It got us thinking, how can we ever achieve financial inclusion when the poorest are being exploited? We’ve expanded and are now a team of eight, with six of us working in the Google Tech Incubator, Astrolabs, in Dubai, and the tech team of two back in the UK. We’re all working hard preparing for launch
later this year.
IBS Journal: What’s your business model?
KB: We typically work with corporates to provide accounts to their employees, who are currently restricted to basic pre-paid cards. Using NOW Money, salaries can be paid directly into employees’ NOW Money app accounts, where they can manage their finances and remit overseas. As users don’t have to withdraw cash to make remittances, more cash is kept in the financial system. This is a big priority for the UAE as all transactions have a “ledger”, making them secure and trackable. In addition, users can pay bills and top up mobile phones with credit, and still have a card for day-to-day withdrawals and transactions.
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