New funding will enable Pip IT Global to enhance its social impact offering, allowing migrants to access financial facilities often denied to them.
Galway start-up Pip IT Global has embarked on a journey to create 25 new jobs after raising €1m in funding from private investors and Enterprise Ireland. Eight of the jobs are already in place and the company plans to recruit a further 17 people in the next 12 to 18 months.
Pip IT is a fintech company on a “social impact” mission. It has devised a secure and private online payment platform that helps customers spend cash digitally.
Banking for the unbanked
The company allows migrants living and working around the world, who are often denied access to backing facilities most people take for granted, to pay bills and transfer money overseas at a fraction of the cost and time taken by the more traditional international payment providers that currently dominate the market.
“We are digitalising cash,” said CEO and co-founder Ollie Walsh. “And we are trying to remove the two main obstacles migrants face when transferring money: risk and cost. We want to play a big part in combating financial exclusion across the world, by helping the unbanked and underbanked to fully participate in the digital world.
“Our fees are 1.5pc. This is a significant saving on the payment but to put it into some context, for example, in a developing nation such as Ghana, one year’s health insurance costs $5. So, paying a single bill with Pip IT, as opposed to remitting cash, could pay for health insurance for a family member for a whole year.”
The idea for Pip IT was born from the fact that international migration is at an all-time high, with more than 250m migrant workers across the globe collectively sending more than $600bn to their families back home each year.
“I moved to the UK in 2014 and found that as a migrant, it can take up to a year to open a bank account overseas. We have developed technology which will now allow people to go to a post office branch and lodge money into their bank at home at a fraction of the cost.”
Pip IT Global is already in partnership with 12 international payment partners in the UK, Africa, the Middle East, Canada and India. The new marketing, sales and IT roles will help to grow the business in the countries most suited to the payment services.
“We currently have a healthy pipeline with prospects from UK, West Africa, India, Philippines, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Canada, and are working on getting these across the line and transacting in early 2019,” Walsh explained.
“We also plan to launch Pip IT version 2.0 next year, which will introduce increased functionality and additional revenue streams for the business.”