Paccta.app (Stellar-powered cross-border payments) (in development)

Allows users to send or receive fiat-to-fiat remittances in one transaction (SEP-31), using anchor services as back-end, without hurting UX which is the biggest pain for the average users in emerging markets that don’t understand the nuances behind crypto technology.

‍

Pactta’s wallet (B2C/B2B)

Allows users in challenging economies to hedge themselves against inflation with USDC. Users can also:

• Cash in-and-out any bank account or Moneygram location (Q2 2023).
• Send funds between usernames (Q3 2023).
• Hold and earn interests in crypto (Q3 2023).
• Get a debit card to use anytime, anywhere (Q4 2023).

Pactta’s fintech infrastructure

Allows fintech in Latam to scale their products using APIs. Some of our solutions are:

• Anchor services for Stellar-backed tokens. i.e. ARST, CLPT, SOLT. (Q2 2023).
• Fiat-to-crypto on/off ramp (Q3 2023).
• Digital accounts provider with real time conciliation (Q1 2024).
• KYC solution compliant with Latam regulations (Q1 2024).

Product

After months of pivoting, fine-tuning technical details of our product and integrating a KYC platform, we re-launched our MVP in May 2022. Since then, our web platform and app has been operational and available for download in the app stores. We already have many active users sending money abroad from Argentina.

Traction

In just 6 months, our MVP has already helped over 650 people send around $130k, and has earned over 78% of them coming back to us at least once a month. Our current users trust our product and also encourage their networks to use Pactta, as we are activating at least 30 new organic users per month.

We receive an average of 700 transactions per month, representing a volume of about $28K and monthly fees of about $2K.

Market

Today, we are active and growing in Argentina and planning to expand to Chile and Perú in Q1 2023. Later on, we are looking to land in Colombia, and once we have a solid PMF, to land in Brazil and Mexico.

Why Pactta? Why today?

‍

There are 4 important reasons to understand that now is the ideal time to scale Pactta:

‍

• Cross-border payments in emerging markets are on the rise
  

Cross-border payments are a trend that is reaching more and more places in the world, and in Latin America they are growing steadily: last year more than US$ 100 billion were transacted and is expected to continue to grow. In this context, offering cross-border payment services in the Latin American region is a very attractive opportunity for all types of financial institutions.

• The highly fragmented global blockchain payments market and differing regulatory requirements.
  

As a result of this, an issuing partner, such as an MTO, would have to connect to several secondary networks to offer a truly global solution to customers in emerging markets, which provides an opportunity for fintechs in the Latam region.

• Users know it can be better
  

Individuals and SMEs' needs for cross-border payments have evolved dramatically. Consumers have traditionally been served by retail banks or MTOs, which do not meet their needs. Users now demand real-time, low-cost, fully traceable payments on a global scale, and in new ways.

• Blockchain for the masses
  

Blockchain remains unadopted on a mass scale and users are failing to take advantage of its functionalities due to its complex and technical nature. Words like trading, cold wallet, assets, lumens and stablecoins do not contribute to UX friendliness, they only cause uncertainty and scare consumers away.

Business model

At Pactta, it is part of our vision to finally bring transparency to this industry. People want to know exactly what they’re paying for the service, so we’re standing against the tendency of most competitors to hide the fee behind the FX and vice versa.

Keeping it simple, today we charge:

• Transaction fee: 6% of sending amount. (This is already competitive and we will further minimize it with strategic pricing partnerships).
• FX spread: ~0%. Pactta’s users get the true market exchange rate.
  

To activate new users, we’ll use or mix the incentives that we consider the strongest in this industry:

• Price competition.
• Referral code with money gift (through QR scan).
• 0% fee on first transaction.

To reach users, we’ll use or mix this channels:

• Digital Marketing campaigns with a focus in Social Ads and Paid Media.
• Sponsoring niche community events. (E.g. A Colombian comedian presenting his new show in Buenos Aires).
• Waiting list + Email Marketing for expansion or new features.
• Leveraging immigrant-led organizations, influencers, social media groups.

Target

Pactta is designed to work on two verticals:

• Pactta People. (Remittances / C2C)
• Pactta Business. (Cross-border payments / B2C & B2B)

In both verticals we target users that:

• Don’t know about blockchain and are not interested in learning about blockchain.
• Know something or are interested in learning about blockchain.
• Are very knowledgeable about blockchain and prioritize UX.

Pactta People: Most of the users are immigrants or people related to immigrants that support their relatives in their origin country through remittances. The receiver in many cases is a family member that needs economic support day-to-day. The sender is usually a lower-middle class person who works/studies hard and maintains a "move forward" mentality. Remittances are usually used to buy medicines, food or to make payments related to household expenses.

‍

Common pains are:

• Crypto complexity and poor UX
• High inflation of their local currency
• Low access to banking
• Use informal services
• Travels to branch to receive payments

‍

Pactta Business: The main customers are Freelance workers that request payments and SMEs (1-50 employees) that pay vendors or manage multiple treasury accounts. These payments are usually disorganized and inefficient because approvals, invoices, and payments are scattered on chats, emails, or paper bills. This type of user tends to prioritize UX, time and payment methods.

‍

Common pains are:

• Not paying or getting paid on time
• Low banking engagement
• High fees on small tickets
• Low treasury liquidity

• Instagram
• LinkedIn

‍