Qatar-Born CWallet offers a multi-functional Fintech solution for MENA’s expat population

In 2021, Statista.com found that Filipinos working in Qatar sent over $829 million in cash transfers to the Philippines. But as a long-term resident of Qatar, Michael Javier is well aware of the situation of other expats (whether they come from the Philippines like him, or elsewhere), both in the country and in the greater region, which, Although they want to send return most of the income to their families in their home country, they often cannot do so due to problems such as high remittances or lack of a bank account.

To introduce a new money transfer and payment solution for unbanked and low-income expats in Qatar, Javier launched CWallet, a fintech startup that enables users to receive salaries on the platform, while carrying out online and offline transactions, and to finally, send money to other countries in a seamless way.

CWallet’s origin story begins with Javier joining one of the leadership programs at HEC Paris in Qatar with the help of his then-employer’s sponsorship, then focusing his thesis on exploring opportunities for fintech solutions for Qatar’s unbanked and low-income Filipino population. This study ended up being the foundation of the CWallet concept and also how Javier met his co-founders: Dr. Abdul-Mohsin AlYafei, Mustafa Al Sayrafi, Khalid Al Yafei, Nasser Al Haj, Abdulaziz Abdulla and Mohammed Kafoud. Starting as classmates, then friends, and then business partners, this group of entrepreneurs decided to invest money, time, connections and expertise to launch the business, while playing different roles in the startup.

To validate the concept, Javier and the team conducted surveys and interviews with potential users of the app, while engaging early adopters to validate the product. The concept was later incubated at the Digital Incubation Center, an initiative of Qatar’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, where Javier and his partners were encouraged to build CWallet in a way that is able to accommodate low-income and unbanked migrant workers, domestic workers. , and workers, who all want access to financial services. Soon after, CWallet also received support from the Qatar Science and Technology Park’s product development fund in the form of a grant to local early-stage startups to develop products and services for the Qatari market.

Today, with a vision to promote financial inclusion as well as a cashless society, CWallet is a multi-functional start-up that acts as a digital wallet, while also providing payment solutions and electronic payment solutions. Javier explains that the startup offers three different products, the first of which is CShop, an online marketplace where users can buy gifts and playing cards, pay bills to the government and electricity in their home country, while allowing users to order food, medicine and groceries for their families at home and deliver it to their doors. The second product, CPay, is an online payment gateway that targets online businesses of all scales – from micro SMBs, to SMBs, other startups and online retailers – to allow them to get paid online, send payment links and invoices .

The CWallet Team

The latest product, CWallet, is a mobile wallet with a focus on salary, payment and remittance services. It allows employers to pay employees via wallet-to-wallet transfers, while users can also pay online, on-site and on delivery to complete transactions. Since MENA has a huge expat population, Javier believes his concept has a lot of potential in the region. “The majority of the population shows great demand for cheaper, better, easier and faster ways to send money to their home countries,” he notes.

In terms of its business model, CWallet generates revenue from a percentage of profit sharing on remittances, a commission percentage per transaction for its B2B customers as sellers, as well as a service fee on its marketplace features. “With our upcoming features, we will be sending our services to businesses, merchants and micro-entrepreneurs where they can subscribe to our services for minimal fees,” adds Javier.

With CWallet as his first entrepreneurial venture, Javier admits that his journey with the startup has been one of many twists and turns. “Like any other entrepreneur, you have to know how to fail fast and learn faster,” he reflects. “Sometimes you have to learn it the hard way… In my personal experience, your startup is not your baby. It’s your experiment. You have to learn to let go and pivot.” In terms of challenges, he puts building the product itself at the top of the list, closely followed by financing. “As they say, cash is like air for startups,” he explains.

“You run out of cash, you die instantly. So, every day is funding day, but that doesn’t mean everyday is a use day either. Every penny you drop has to be measured, has to be valued, and has to create an impact, a learning experience, get a customer, get a new partner, or simply [to] gain exposure to VCs, media, ecosystem builders, regulators, etc.”

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Michael Javier, Co-Founder and CEO, CWallet

Given its operations in the financial space, another tough challenge the company has had to face has been getting the go-ahead from the necessary regulators in the space. “It was a very long process – requiring a lot of resources, time, effort, money, expertise, consulting, security, risk, [and] compliance documents and I could go on and on,” Javier admits.

“In fact, most of our fundraising was spent on getting regulation. We also found that there is no shortcut in this part of the business, because it is mainly processes and procedures that will take time.” Still, Javier says the team is working hard to obtain regulation, along with assistance from Qatar’s central bank – at the end of the day, he and his team believe this is a necessary step to ensure the protection of customers when using CWallet.

The team’s persistence seems to be paying off – according to Javier, from just 1,500 users, the app now hosts 15,000 unique users. “From users with zero remittance to 1.5 million verified customers, we are scaling up like never before because of our strategic partnerships,” says Javier. “Our airtime top-up, government and bill payment, and international trade cover more than 150 countries, allowing us to serve more nearly every expat in the region.” Some of the partners in the region include Visa, Microsoft, Al Dar Exchange, Jazp, as well as prominent entities in Asia, such as PLDT Global, DTOne, BeamAndGo, M2P, WorkerzApp, EasyPay and more. “We aim to be known as a super services startup, rather than just a super app,” adds Javier. .

And although it was initially self-funded, in June of this year the startup closed its pre-Series A round of $875,000, led by Qatar-based investment firm MBK Holding, with participation from investment firm Angels.qa, local angel investors, and the co-founders themselves. According to Javier, to date the team has raised a total of over $1.4 million, accumulated from bootstrap, public grants, angel rounds and the recent funding round.

It has also garnered numerous accolades, including winning the Qatar Fintech Hub’s first hackathon challenge in 2020, becoming one of the top nine finalists at Seedstars and the International Organization of Employers’ Migration Challenge Startup Competition, as well as one of the winners of the Migration Entrepreneurship Award 2021 .In June this year, it was also one of the top 20 finalists in the C3 Impact Accelerator Program, run by HSBC.

As for future plans, it’s safe to say that Javier and his partners have a lot on the table, which includes a memorandum of understanding with Microsoft to cover local and international partnerships and exploit various business opportunities, followed by a five-year strategic partnership with Visa. On the product side, Javier reveals that the soon-to-be-launched CWallet Mobile Money 4.0 version will have a remittance feature developed in collaboration with VISA and Qatar National Bank, which will enable users to send money instantly, anytime, anywhere.

The app will soon also enable issuance of virtual prepaid cards, in addition to features such as tap and pay via NFC technology, scan and pay via QR code technology and pay-to-face via facial recognition technology, further enabling cashless and contactless transactions for online, offline and mobile payments. And of course, the startup is aiming for expansion as well – countries like the UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman and Iraq are first on the list, followed by Turkey, as well as markets in Africa and Asia.

From a personal standpoint, Javier is hopeful that his entrepreneurial journey will inspire other Filipino expats in the Middle East to get out of their comfort zones and dream bigger about what they want to do with their lives. – Yes, we can be the best employee of the month, the best nurse, engineer, secretary etc., he says. “But the concept of the overseas Filipino worker is a thing of the past. What if we can be overseas Filipino entrepreneurs, and be the boss and leader of our companies?”

That said, Javier points out that becoming an entrepreneur shouldn’t be considered a joyride either. “With dedication, faith and smart work, along with investing in yourself, there is a possibility that you will eventually get lucky,” he declares. “Yes, I believe in luck, and I think you’ll get luckier if you and your team work harder than anyone else!”

This way of thinking thus forms the basis of Javier’s advice to entrepreneurs who are just starting their business. “Hold on, and never give up,” he declares. “Every day is a new day, it can be bad, and sometimes worse. But have faith, and stick to your team, and keep the hunger, the dream, the desire and the fire… Wear your brand like a fanatic – eat with it, live with it, dream with it!”

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