Inspiration
In 2021, over a 42Billion (USD) in remittance inflows and mobile money were sent to Francophone Africa which amounts to 425 million in lost due to fees and exchange rate spreads charged by Western Union, Wave, Banks, and telecommunication companies. The loss to fees is expected to grow to over 1B in the next years with remittance inflows and money transfers expected to double. This represents a multi-million dollars opportunity for Hettyx. We want to create a bridge between remittance inflows and mobile banking in francophone West Africa by leveraging a peer-to-peer service that connects senders to mobile money agents enabling them to scale and capture most of the remittance inflows.
What it does
Hettyx allows users to instantaneously exchange and spend money from different currencies in XOF at a small flat fee, and zero FX markup. Rates are converted using live rate, specifically the same rate financial institutions use to exchange money on the FX market. A small flat fee is charged regardless of the size of the transfer which will enable users to save more than 99% compared to any other competitors.
How we built it
We understood first-hand the challenges that folks experience to send money and to pay their bills and we have also seen the evolution and adoption of mobile telecommunication in Africa. We wanted a platform that is accessible via WhatsApp so users can open an account whenever and wherever they want. In addition, low and transparent fees allow users to reap the benefits of money transfer and our revenue-sharing model with mobile vendors allows Hettyx to operate.
Challenges we ran into
Getting our waitlist users was challenging. By using word of mouth marketing strategy, we were able to sign up more than 1,000 users to be the first to get access to our platform when we go live.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
In the past ten months, with limited resources, we built the first version of the app and onboarded our local team on the ground in West Africa. Moreover, we initiated partnerships with two card processing companies namely Acquired and Railsbank. Finally, we have started the process to get a license as a payment institution from the EBA and FCA. Moving money into Francophone Africa borders has never been so easy. The journey is 1% finished. We want to put francophone Africa at the forefront of the fintech revolution.
What we learned
One lesson that we learned is to start small, to enjoy the ride, and to learn from it. Therefore, we have decided to onboard Euro and XOF as our first currencies and extend them to other foreign currencies such as USD, CAD, and Pounds by end of 2023.
What's next for Peer to Peer Mobile Money Transfer
The next steps for Hettyx are to build the mobile app, obtain a payment institution license from the EBA and FCA and hire two software developers. To go live in the last quarter of this year, we will need fundings of more than $150,000 which we plan to achieve through pitch competitions and raising money from family and friends.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.