KometPay is a mobile app that helps Latino migrants support their families back home. Users can either choose to send USDC or redeemable vouchers. Recipients who receive USDC can either store them in their Komet wallet or transfer them to their bank accounts in their local currency. Those who receive a redeemable voucher can spend its value in the merchant.

Our product addresses pain points for migrants in the US and recipients in Colombia.

1. In the US:

• Red tape: With KometPay, users can send money in three simple steps by simply selecting the recipient’s phone number. No need to include unnecessary banking details.
• Exchange rates: With KometPay, senders don't need to worry about the exchange rate: they can send dollars and the recipient will receive dollars.
• Allocation of resources: Another concern for senders is how the money is spent. Through KometPay, they will be able to select a merchant (pharmacy, supermarket) and send a voucher that will only be redeemable in the selected merchant.

2. In Colombia:

• Dollar account: Our USDC wallet and voucher credit protects Colombians from the volatility of the Colombian peso. They can choose to spend all or a partial amount.
• Access: Colombia remains a cash-based economy with a largely unbanked population. Our partnership network ensures that everyone, regardless of access to banking tools, can withdraw their Komet balance.

KometPay leverages Stellar at every step of our flow of funds:

1. Through our integration with MoonPay, we ensure that the sending user can onramp USDC on Stellar.
2. The USDC will be sent to a Komet wallet issued on the Stellar network, which will allow our Colombian users to store USDC or a USDC-backed voucher.
3. When the Colombian user wants to off-ramp, either transferring to their local bank account, spending a voucher at a merchant or cashing out at a local partner, we will leverage Stellar's anchor network that will connect us to the dex and the local banking rails.

We first applied at the idea stage, still working out our flow of funds, partnership structure, team formation and developing our demo. Our goal was to launch a money transfer app that leveraged Stellar while integrating with local merchants for cash access in Colombia. Our vision was to make an existing service, cross-border money transmission, cheaper, faster and more efficient.

Today, we are about to launch our MVP with waitlisted users, we have a solid development team and we are putting into place our go-to-market strategy. Our product also looks quite different, from brand identity to product and features. Our vision has also changed: we want to build Komet to become the brand that supports Latinos in and out of LatAm.

This means creating a brand and products that go beyond money transmission. Throughout, we have talked closely with our target audience, bringing us to understand their needs and motivations. Many migrate to improve their families’ quality of life; many others migrate to save up and retire back home.

Komet aims to redefine how support is given and modernize remittances in doing so. Sending money is necessary but not enough. We are launching our money transfer service, allowing users in the US to send USDC to users in Colombia. The receiving user will be able to store the USDCs in their Komet wallet or convert to COP when transferring from their Komet wallet to their local bank account. With our partner network, we will soon offer cashout options for the unbanked.

We are applying to SCF to add another feature that will leverage our existing partner network, allowing sending users to support their families differently, not just by sending money. This means they can, through KometPay, buy vouchers to be redeemed by the recipient in a specific merchant; or even pay for utilities, education, healthcare or invest in real estate. Our vouchers will be valued in USDC and will allow the recipient to spend as they please in any of the merchants.

Threats and opportunities:

The most immediate threat is the overall instability of the crypto market. The recent shut down of SVB is the last of many crises the crypto market has been facing in the last 12 months. It directly hit us in a particularly sensitive point as it hindered Circle’s liquidity of USDC. This has been one of many detrimental events we have faced. The general uncertainty of the market carried into 2023 with Wyre’s shutdown, which also impacted us.

These difficulties have meant moments of reflection and internal regrouping, which ultimately led to enhancing our product and vision. In spite of the very concrete crisis ecosystem, we are firm believers in the value of the technology we are investing in, and our resilience has proven stronger than any adversity. We defend the value this technology can bring to developing markets, especially LatAm. We sustain this is the right time to encourage the shift from traditional financial transactions to de-fi options.

Significance of solution:

The need for KometPay is evident because of the deficiencies of the current solutions and the evidence suggesting Colombians are ripe for an increasingly larger adoption of mobile finance. The rate of financial literacy in Colombia grew to 70% and the general distrust in - and inefficiency of - traditional banking is further proven by the higher rate of mobile banking adoption compared to traditional banking.

Whilst there is proof of successful adoption of mobile banking from previously unbanked groups, as a whole, 50% of the Latin American population remains unbanked. We can provide this otherwise uncatered for demographic group with a solution and target the ones burdened with the traditional one.

As the general distrust towards traditional LatAm banks grows, new fintechs have a concrete chance to test new and better solutions; we believe KometPay and Stellar’s blockchain have the potential to play a pivotal role in this transition.

Funding:

We are hunting for future funding and are in conversation with US and LatAm VCs to accompany us as lead investors. We have been taking some time to know investors and finding out whose vision and strategy best aligns with ours. We are both first time founders and we want to be certain of the investors we’ll take on board; we believe the SCF would be a powerful ally for our growth.

Stellar anchors:

We work closely with Anclap (former SCF winner) who will be off ramping our users’ USDCs to COP and verify KYC. Working directly with active members of the Stellar community has been truly rewarding and made us and our team feel a part of a shared mission to improve and revolutionize financial tools and access in LatAm.

Resources and relationships:

Our most valuable resource is our team: ambitious, intelligent and committed. We are building KometPay to solve a problem we all experience firsthand, which fosters a deep urge to make things better.

Our pre-existing commercial relations will make KometPay’s vision happen. We have access to key figures in retail who are the cornerstone of our partnership network. Working with them will guarantee that we can bring our vision to market.

User:

KometPay’s marketing aims to convince Colombian migrants in the US who send money back home that KometPay is the service that best caters to them to support their families. This will be done in two ways: by communicating the merits of our features and by building KometPay to become a point of reference and support for Latinos outside of LatAm.

In our pre-launch stage, our strategy has focused on reaching out to users directly to showcase the product, get feedback, and ask them to join the waitlist. This includes canvassing in shopping centers near competitor’s sites where we directly engage in conversation with remitters. We also post on Colombian community groups on Facebook, where we have been creating our own community.

For our launch, we will continue acquisition tasks during our pre-launch stage.

• Social media. The purpose is twofold: visibility and content. It will build our brand effort to become a pillar of support for the Latino community outside of LatAm. Through these channels, we will advertise our products, services, and releases.
• Ads in shopping venues. We will target senders in the US by placing fliers and other advertising campaigns in places that are mostly frequented by Colombians in the US (restaurants, shops, churches, markets, migration services).
• Partner marketing. We will partner with distributors of Colombian products sold in the US where we will paste our content to directly reach our target audience.
• Product placement. Target local influencers and create relevant and creative campaigns.
• Non-media marketing: building our brand beyond money transmission. Collaborating with migration centers, markets, consulates, cultural centers to be involved with our community and show how we can guide them and support them with international finance support.

Our first deliverable includes two tasks: 1. Adjust our user journey to include the voucher function and draft final diagrams; and 2. Test our MVP with end-to-end transactions (alpha testing)

To begin integrating our app to include the voucher function, we will work with our UX/UI designer to reevaluate the user journey and make any necessary changes. This product will be a FigJam file and drafts of High Fidelity designs.

To test the MVP, our team will need to finish the integration with the anchor in Colombia, Anclap. Once this is done, we will test transactions end-to-end, assessing how the app flows, improving the flow where and if necessary, and start development for all foreseeable edge cases.

Whilst we carry out this, our back end team will start working with the first partners in Colombia with which we will to test the voucher feature and reflect any modifications on the above mentioned 'voucher - user flow'.

For the first task the voucher development, we will be able to provide reviewers with our new user flows, designs and documentation regarding the back end part of the local Colombian partner's interaction and how this reflects the user flow. To verify completion, we can share the pertinent FigJam file or we can add the reviewer to our FigJam file with view-only permission for the time necessary to review it.

For the MVP production test, we can provide a video demo of an end-to-end transaction and receipts from the sender and receiver.