Germany-based startup OneFor launched a cross-border money transfer and payments app aimed at migrant workers in Europe.
Alongside this new feature, the startup also bagged a €10m seed fund from Dutch Private Equity company and Group B.V. The company will utilise these fresh funds mainly to acquire and service its customers, further develop its tech platform and expand its services for the UK and all EU countries with an immediate focus on Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy and Spain, connecting them to receiving countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria, Turkey, Ecuador and South East Europe.
Founded in 2020 by FinTech veterans, Marco Abele, ex-chief operating and digital officer at Credit Suisse and Fatih Bektas, ex-C-Suiter at various German FinTech companies, OneFor aims to set itself apart by offering less than one second transaction time and with up to 70% lower average transaction cost.
OneFor is aimed to help migrants, whose livelihoods rely on sending and receiving money internationally. Users can register in-app in a few minutes and add payment recipients directly from their phone’s address book.
Its proprietary end-to-end platform includes one account with several cards. Each card can be assigned to a different family member, which is said to make transfers between them almost instantaneous. Irrespective of where they are, the Mastercard debit card allows online or POS payments and ATM cash withdrawals in the country they live. The app and its e-wallet are free, with users paying a fixed fee of £2.31 (€2.70), regardless of the international transfer amount.
The FinTech startup currently employs 40 people and it will grow its team to about 100 people by the end of 2021. The company will mainly add new roles in its customer service function division.
With a global remittance market covering 1 billion people, consisting of nearly 200 million foreign and migrant workers as senders and 800 million of their family members and relatives on the receiving side back home, OneFor’s aims to stretch far beyond the industry, and “enhance lives and livelihoods.” It also offers an ’emotional’ interface, with social features such as chat and the ability to send ‘polaroids’, and ‘gifts’, enhancing the emotional side of remittance.
Commenting on the firm’s plans Abele said, “We believe money is about more than transactions – it’s about the connections, experiences and possibilities it unfolds. Our goal for OneFor is that it transforms transactions into moments of emotional connection, payments into shared experiences, and financial inclusion into a force for social progress and economic potential”.
Echoing a similar sentiment, Bektas said, “We have an ambitious growth plan and we have done our homework to build a model that enables us to scale. Apart from remittances, we are innovating other payment features. This includes the imminent roll-out of a QR-code solution serving local markets with a substantially cheaper and instant mobile POS for “touch & go” merchants, like small business owners or delivery services.”
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