Project Stage
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Team size
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WHAT WE DO
Smilepay is a Peer-to-Peer mobile app and USSD that helps African diasporas send money, buy airtime and pay utility bills for friends and family in Africa, in real-time and free of charge.
HOW IT WORKS
*Through, Smilepay app, the sender can also send money directly to the recipient's bank account with a 1% transaction fee. It's not a must for the recipient to download the Smilepay app to receive payment but they can benefit from free transaction fees when they use the app to receive money.
WHY?
OUR UNIQUE ADVANTAGE
OUR TARGET CUSTOMERS
CUSTOMER INDUSTRIES
OUR MISSION
*We are starting by helping Ethiopian diasporas living in the USA to send money to Ethiopia.
HOW WE USE STELLAR
We are going to issue a stablecoin that is tethered to the USD and Ethiopian national currency Ethiopian “Birr” and maintain the equivalent fiat reserve with our partner bank.
WHY STELLAR?
Pilot program duration is 6 months (June - November)
The necessary resources to bring Smilepay live is partnership with banks, traditional remittance companies (for their license), PR and funding.
Local Bank: We have had discussions with various local banks and all of them are interested in partnership since our service will bring forex to their banks. Currently, we are discussing internally which the best local bank to partner with is that is strategic to our goal.
Remittance license: Since we don't have a remittance license to operate in the USA, we have to partner with a remittance company that has a license. We have had a discussion with various remittance companies that operate in the USA and all of them are interested in partnering with us. Currently, we are discussing internally to choose the remittance company that is strategic to our goal.
Business partnerships: We have partnered with Derash API (bill payment data API) and Ephone (Airtime distributor API). We have started integration with E-phone and are in the process of auditing to integrate with Derash.
PR: We have joined Orange Fab accelerator. Orange Fab is giving us access to PR, Investor network, legal council and business development. As well as the opportunity for Smilepay to provide its services in countries where Orange telecom operates.
* Through Orange Fab and Orange Telecom, Smilepay is sponsored to participate in the VIVA Tech 2022 conference, in France (15th - 18th of June).
Funding: We currently have enough funding to pilot for a month but we are looking for additional funding from SCF to achieve the rest of the 5 month pilot program. We also want to hire more software developers.
PROBLEM
Existing services charge high transaction fees. The average cost of sending money across borders in sub-saharan Africa is 8.17% against the global average of 6.5% making it the world’s most expensive remittance corridor.
* The remittance sector is yet to get disrupted.
SOLUTION
Smilepay is a peer-to-peer mobile app that helps diaspora send money, pay utility bills and buy airtime for friends and family in Africa, in real-time and free of charge.
How do you use Stellar in your solution?
We are going to issue a stablecoin that is tethered to the USD and Ethiopian national currency Ethiopian “Birr” and maintain the equivalent fiat reserve with our partner bank.
Diasporas living abroad that have family and friends in Ethiopia.
Pain Points: High transaction fees for sending money home
Needs: affordably sending money internationally, paying bills for friends and family back home, certainty about money being sent
Wants: send money on an adhoc basis, sending money in flexible amounts
Age: 21-45
Gender: N/A
Characteristics: working class individuals, sending money home monthly, University Educated in USA
Languages: Amharic, English
Location: USA
How to reach them: digital marketing, traditional marketing, referrals
Ethiopian youth that have family and friends abroad.
Pain Points: Running out of money frequently
Needs: request money and receive money from abroad fast
Wants: get family abroad to pay bills locally
Age: 15-29
Gender: N/A
Characteristics: students, financially dependant, working class individuals
Languages: Amharic, English
Location: Addis Ababa
How to reach them: digital marketing, traditional marketing, referrals, Telegram marketing
Ethiopian Freelance workers that get paid from abroad.
Pain Points: Not getting paid on time and expensive exchange rates
Needs: get paid consistently and instantly
Wants: Accept payment from anywhere in the world
Age: 18- 29
Gender: N/A
Characteristics: remote workers, online work, upwork users,
Languages: Amharic, English
Location: Ethiopia
How to reach them: digital marketing, traditional marketing, referrals, Telegram marketing
1. Cross border payment: Dependent on country of operation, we earn a percentage on FX interchange or charge sender 1% (maximum fee is $100)
2. Local P2P payment: 1% fee (maximum fee $1)
3. Withdraw or Cash out: 1% fee or $1
4. Charge online businesses 2%+$0.019 of every payment accepted domestically. E.g. Airtime top, utility bills, donation.
3. Charge online businesses 2%+$1 of every payment accepted internationally.
PRICING STRATEGY
Our competitors are charging fees according to the amount of money transacted making it expensive and challenging for consumers to understand the cost of transactions. We wanted to leverage a simple and capped pricing strategy so customers always know how much transaction fee they are charged because affordability is a priority.
SALES FORECAST
It's hard to forecast sales but our nearest local competitor that started operation this year transacts up to $100,000 daily.
FINANCIAL PLAN
Cost Break Down in USD
Total Capital (Angel investment): $35,000
Available budget for Pilot Programme: $5,000
Total Pilot cost: $50,000
Deficit: $45,000
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12 month Cost Projections:
Human Capital: $26,000
SAAS softwares (Softwares necessary for the app to run and for operation ): $60,684
Marketing: $ 10,000
Tax: 35%
12 month Revenue Projections:
Projected transaction volume: $1.2million
Revenue
Sending to bank accounts: (30% of all transactions charged 1%): $3,600
Local P2P transactions (10% of all transactions: $1,200
Businesses Accepting Domestic payments: $7,200
Business Accepting International payments: $14,000
Interchange earning: $144,000
Total Revenue: $170,000
Profit: $10,000
Strengths:
Weakness: Funding
Opportunities: First company to implement a peer-to-peer remittance app in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is an untapped market with Africa’s second biggest population and $5.3 Billion remittance market.
Threats: Since we are starting in Ethiopia Political instability is a threat.
Smilepay is part of Orange Fab Accelerator (Orange telecom affiliate) and we are going to be at VIVA tech 2022 in France this June, to pitch to Orange Fab’s investor networks.
We are looking for $50,000 in funding from SCF to launch the Smilepay remittance app and execute our 6 month pilot program (June-November, 2022).
The money will be spent on
1. Stripe API fee (On ramp)
2. Meta Map API Fee (KYC/AML API)
3. Buying XLM (for transaction)
4. Twillo fee (OTP for USA customers)
5. Geez (OTP for Ethiopia customers)
6. Ethioswitch API fee (for off ramping money from Smilepay to any local bank)
7. Hiring additional software developers
8. Digital Marketing
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Smilepay_Global
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SmilepayGlobal
Telegram: https://t.me/SmilepayGlobal
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smilepay_global/
Muluken Bekele
Mike Zeleke
Salim Nuru
Eyob Bekele
Fikremariam (Fike)
Clarke Dhana
The USD valuation of the budget request in XLM will be calculated using the CF Stellar Lumens-Dollar Settlement Price on December 5, 2022 as administered, maintained, and reported by the cryptocurrency index provider CF Benchmarks Ltd. (using the ticker “XLMUSD_RR”) (available at https://www.cfbenchmarks.com/indices/XLMUSD_RR). Learn more in the SCF Handbook.
*The USD valuation of the award in XLM is calculated using the CF Stellar Lumens-Dollar Settlement Price on July 5th as administered, maintained, and reported by the cryptocurrency index provider CF Benchmarks Ltd. (using the ticker “XLMUSD_RR”) (available at https://www.cfbenchmarks.com/indices/XLMUSD_RR)
**The USD valuation of the award in XLM is calculated using the CF Stellar Lumens-Dollar Settlement Price on December 16, 2021 as administered, maintained, and reported by the cryptocurrency index provider CF Benchmarks Ltd. (using the ticker “XLMUSD_RR”) (available at https://www.cfbenchmarks.com/indices/XLMUSD_RR)
*The USD valuation of the award in XLM is calculated using the CF Stellar Lumens-Dollar Settlement Price on September 27, 2021 as administered, maintained, and reported by the cryptocurrency index provider CF Benchmarks Ltd. (using the ticker “XLMUSD_RR”) (available at https://www.cfbenchmarks.com/indices/XLMUSD_RR)
* The USD valuation of the award in XLM is calculated using the CF Stellar Lumens-Dollar Settlement Price on the date of transfer as administered, maintained, and reported by the cryptocurrency index provider CF Benchmarks Ltd. (using the ticker “XLMUSD_RR”) (available at https://www.cfbenchmarks.com/indices/XLMUSD_RR)
*This budget request has not been fully awarded to the project. The USD valuation of the budget request in XLM will be calculated using the CF Stellar Lumens-Dollar Settlement Price on day of payment as administered, maintained, and reported by the cryptocurrency index provider CF Benchmarks Ltd. (using the ticker “XLMUSD_RR”) (available at https://www.cfbenchmarks.com/indices/XLMUSD_RR). Learn more in the SCF Handbook.