SCF #11
Orokii App

Orokii provides domestic and cross-border blockchain-based money transfers that lower customer transaction costs & speedy delivery

Awarded
Budget request:
$
190,000
*
WebsiteCode

Project Stage

Growth

Category

Cross-Border Payments

Based in

USA

Team size

4

Active since

2021
Products & Services

Orokii app provides users and businesses with low transaction fee remittances domestically and internationally at a speedy delivery. Target users include individuals that want to send money to friends and family domestically and internationally. Additionally, Orokii targets small and medium-sized businesses that want to make domestic payments to another company or send money cross-border for payroll, invoices, or other business transactions. Also, the Orokii app can deliver payments to clients in the US on behalf of our partners. For example, Orokii’s partner, Tempo, can send payment to Orokii for delivery to its receiving clients in the US. Hence, Orokii serves as a Sending Anchor (SA) and a Receiving Anchor (RA).


Orokii App is solving the following problems

  • High transaction fees: 6.4% average transaction fees, according to the World Bank remittance data. It is more than double the Sustainable Development Goal target of 3.0% by 2030.
  • 1-5 settlement days.
  • High currency markup.
  • Lackluster user experience.
  • Using a different app for domestic and cross-border money transfers.


How Orokii App solves the problems

  • Lower transaction fees - less than 3% of the transaction amount.
  • Speedy delivery - for example, it takes less than ten seconds to send payment to nTokens in Brazil, and nToken delivers the money in about two minutes to a receiving client.
  • Using the same app to send both domestic and cross-border payments.
  • Better user experience with a balance with security - every user must register with a government-issued photo ID, and KYC, or KYB, is conducted by default.


How the Orokii App works

  1. After successful signup, a user links her bank account to the app using Plaid.
  2. User deposit money to the app using the linked bank account - if a user deposits 500 USD, the app will credit the user wallet with 500 USDO (Orokii’s stablecoin).
  3. With a balance of 500 USDO in her wallet, the user can send payment domestically to another user on the app (or invite another user to join) or cross-border. Cross-border payment is delivered through our Receiving Anchor partners (Tempo, nTokens, or MyKobo).
  4. After receiving payment in his wallet, the recipient can withdraw the money from his wallet to his bank account.


Orokii uses Circle ACH API for Deposit, Withdrawal, and Plaid API to link bank accounts. Orokii implements Plaid’s Identity, Authorization, and Balance APIs to reduce fraud and insufficient balance risks.


How Orokii App uses Stellar Blockchain

Orokii has implemented several SEP protocols to serve as Sending and Receiving Anchors. In addition, Orokii issues a stablecoin USDO token backed by USD in a one-to-one ratio.

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Previous Project(s)
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Progress so far

Orokii App launch

  • Orokii app was launched in late July 2022 - this release has domestic payment and only Brazil as cross-border payment features.
  • On September 14, 2022, Orokii completed its integration with Tempo, a significant milestone. The Tempo integration release is now available on Google Play and via our website, where user can signup or login into their account.
  • Tempo integration allows Orokii users to send payments to all 27 EU countries, including Ukraine, the Philippines, and Senegal.
  • Over 50 users have downloaded or created accounts on the Orokii website and using the app to send payments.
  • Orokii appointed two board directors, Michael Tetu and Jerome Oglesby, to strengthen its management team.
  • Orokii launched its Google Ads campaign to drive customer acquisitions.


Other Achievements

  • Support for the Spanish language - the app now provides support for Spanish to increase customer acquisition among users who only speak Spanish.
  • Orokii conducted an audit of its USD-backed USDO stablecoin. The audit report will be attached as part of the application.
  • Orokii received a money transmitter license (MTL) from New Jersey, which enabled it to conduct business in the state.
  • Orokii applied for MTL in Arizona, and the application is pending approval.
Goals
  1. Increase customer acquisition and active users conducting transactions on the platform by 500% relative to the end of October 2022, when we would have had a whole month of Tempo integration app release on Google Play and Orokii’s website.
  2. Increase money transmitter licenses (MTL) by 300% (from 5 to 15) in more states to conduct businesses by June 30, 2023.
  3. Increase revenue by 500% by March 31, 2023, relative to the end of October 2022, when we would have had a whole month of Tempo integration app release on Google Play and Orokii’s website.
  4. Develop innovative products to support Bill Payment and Rideshare Payment by the first quarter of 2023.
  5. Allow users to use Virtual Credit Card (VCC) as a Withdrawal method by the first quarter of 2023.
  6. Hire one software engineer and one compliance officer by January 31, 2023, to support our development and compliance programs.
To get there, we request a budget of  
$
190,000
*
  to:
  1. Orokii and Tempo are launching a joint marketing campaign due to their strategic partnership. Tempo is a Receiving Anchor for Orokii for all payout from the US to EU countries, the UK, the Philippines, and Ukraine. Orokii is the Receiving Anchor for Tempo for all pay-ins for Tempo customers that want to send money to the US from EU countries and other countries where Tempo operates.
  2. Conduct marketing campaigns using Google Ads (Google Ads went live on September 24) and social media channels (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, etc.), print, and articles in pertinent media outlets such as Benzinga, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, TechBullion, CoinTelegraph, etc.
  3. Holding webinars to inform and create more awareness about the Orokii payment app
  4. Word of mouth to spread the news about the Orokii payment app and the benefits of using the product compared to the competitors.
  5. Orokii requires a money transmitter license (MTLs) to operate in the states it needs to conduct business. The company has five MTLs from Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Montana, and New Jersey. The company will file for nine more MTL applications, including Illinois, Georgia, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and Washington, in the coming months as part of its phase II MTL acquisition program. Orokii is licensed with FinCEN as a money service business (MSB).
  6. Orokii will achieve its revenue goal by increasing the number of users using its payment app for domestic and cross-border payments through an aggressive market campaign using multi-channel outlets, including Facebook, Google Ads, Instagram, TikTok, Syndicated press releases, and others. The market campaign will target businesses (B2B) and individual users (P2P).
  7. Enable individual users (P2P) and small and medium-sized businesses  (B2B) to use the Orokii app for bill payment, shopping, rideshare, and anywhere where Virtual Credit Card is accepted.
  8. Orokii plans to integrate Virtual Credit Card into its platform to allow users to use it as a withdrawal method. This can open a whole new business model for Orokii, where the Orokii app can be used to pay for grocery shopping and use wherever credit cards are accepted.
  9. Orokii will hire a software engineer and a compliance officer when funding becomes available. Orokii aims to hire these resources by January 31, 2023, to support its development effort and compliance program.
Additional information

How will you make revenue?

Orokii makes revenue through transaction fees and margins on foreign exchanges. Businesses pay transaction fees when they use Orokii to send payments to individuals or companies. Businesses pay only transaction fees for domestic transactions but pay margin markup and transaction fees for cross-border transactions. The peer-to-peer (P2P) transaction model is similar to the business revenue model.


How will you keep your project running?

With the Orokii and Tempo integration launch, Orokii is now better positioned to earn revenue to sustain some of its operating costs while looking for funding to scale and grow. Until now, the company has relied on bootstrapping from the founder to support the company.


How do you plan to set prices?

Orokii follows a pricing model where users are only charged when they deposit money to


conduct transactions. Orokii’s deposit fee lowers as the deposit amount increases. Currently, Orokii has an average deposit fee of 1.25%. Also, Orokii set cross-border prices based on fees charged by its Receiving Anchors and marked the prices up to 0.6%.


What is your financial plan?

Please use the link below to review Orokii’s financial plan: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mNjW2pptTGOqOfDIjQuleIJogCOHPUiO4NLMRDhUSok/edit?usp=sharing


In what industry will your project operate?

Orokii targets business-to-business (B2B) and peer-to-peer (P2P) payment markets, enabling businesses to send payments to other companies domestically, pay invoices and payroll, or cover other international business transactions. Orokii targets P2P markets by focusing on immigrants who send money back home (cross-border) to support their families and users who want to send money to friends and family domestically.


How significant is the need to solve this problem?

Most payment mobile solutions use a traditional money-transmitter operator (MTO) as a payment rail. High transaction costs, longer time to payment delivery, and lackluster user experience are the major problems with most of these peer-to-peer payment solutions. The high transaction fees imply that most people pay an average of 6.4% (according to the world bank data) on the amount they send to help friends and family back home. Businesses are losing money when they pay a good portion of their remittances on transaction fees. Orokii helps solve this problem by significantly lowering transactions fee (under 3%), making more money available to the intended recipients, and improving the bottom line for businesses. Using Blockchain allows Orokii to deliver payment in seconds instead of days. For example, on the Orokii app, a W2W payment completes in under five seconds.


What's the market cap?

The global digital remittance market was valued at USD 17.88 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.0% from 2022 to 2030. Additionally, the GVR report states that “the US digital market size was valued at USD 4.6 billion in 2021 and is expected to increase at a CAGR of 13.2% from 2022 to 2030.”


Who are your competitors?

Orokii’s payment competitors include Western Union, Money Gram, PayPal, Wise, WorldRemit, Venmo, Xoom, and Ria.


Why is your solution better?

Most of Orokii's payment solution competitors use traditional corresponding banks' payment rails with multiple intermediaries along the payment journey. Orokii separates itself from its competitors in the following ways:

  • Stellar Blockchain - allows Orokii to offer lower transaction fees; provides better inclusion for the unbanked and underbanked
  • Domestic & Cross-border - users can conduct domestic and international remittance transactions using the same app
  • Digital Asset Swap
  • Direct Payment - the app allows both on-chain and off-chain direct payments
  • Are you working with anchors or other Stellar-based projects?


Orokii has established Receiving Anchor partnerships with Tempo, nTokens, and Mykobo.


What unique resources and relationships do you have that are going to make you succeed?

  • Orokii has formed strategic relationships with Tempo, nTokens, Mykobo, RemitTV, Terrapay, Circle, Plaid, and ID Analyzer. Tempo, nTokens, and Mykobo are Receiving Anchors on the chain for payout, while Terrapay is a money transmitter operator for off-chain transactions. Circle and Plaid provide banking APIs for Orokii, and ID Analyzer offers identity verification and KYC using machine learning. Orokii is working to provide Blockchain wrapper APIs to RemitTV to use on its platform to provide USDO in its customer’s Stellar wallet.
  • Orokii uses Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to host its production environment and build redundancy to ensure reliability, availability, and scalability for continuous operation with minimal downtime.


How Orokii will use the fund from SCF - $190,000

  1. Customer acquisition - $30,000
  2. Money Transmitter Licenses (Nine states:  CA, GA, IL, MA, NC, NV, NY, VA, and WA) - $25,000
  3. Salaries (one engineer and one compliance officer for six months) - $120,000
  4. Partner APIs (Circle, Plaid, ID Analyzer, Google) - $10,000
  5. Business Development - $5,000
Pitch deck
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Deliverables
First Deliverable
Orokii

Orokii provides a P2P and B2B payment solution that enables individuals and businesses to send money domestically and cross-border at a lower transaction fee and speedy delivery. Orokii issues stablecoin - one-to-one USD-backed tokens and maintain fiat reserves equivalent to the value of the issued tokens.

Team

Bisi Adedokun (badedokun)

Founder/CEO

Bisi Adedokun is the founder and CEO of Orokii. His professional background includes operational strategy, management, finance, banking, and software development. Before founding Orokii, Bisi worked at Deutsche Bank for seven years in the technology and security organizations helping the bank protect its assets from adversaries. Bisi holds three graduate degrees (NYU, IE Business School (MBA), and Georgia Tech).

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bisi-adedokun-a4577617/


Michael Tetu

Board Director

Mike is a formidable leader in strategy and operational execution. He brings a wealth of experience in strategic and tactical operations after a 28-year US Army career. While in the Army, he led many organizations, including multi-national operations at Joint Services NATO headquarters in Madrid, Spain, and abroad in Europe and Southwest Asia.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-tetu-3575b5/


Sarafa Ibraheem

Finance/Board Director

Sarafa Ibraheem is an accomplished professional with a history of success and experience in mathematics, computer science, engineering, business, and finance. Sarafa was a director of a quantitative strategy at Mizuho Securities USA. Before Mizuho, Sarafa was at Goldman Sachs and managed various development and delivery of trading and quantitative products. Sarafa holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and a graduate degree in Computational Finance from CMU.


Jerome Oglesby

Board Director

Jerome is the Global Chief Technology Officer at Deloitte, where he oversees the technology transformation of the firm to a modern agile outfit. He is a technology leader, who builds partnerships between technology capabilities and business unit goals through a demonstrated history in the management consulting industry, substantial information technology skills, and business process reengineering.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeromeoglesby/


Himanshu Sankhe

Product Development

Himanshu Sankhe is a dynamic and energetic product manager with an analytical mind. He is creative and astute at number crunching and building pricing models to support the various aspects of Orokii products. Himanshu uses his engineering background to support product development and delivery.