Southeast Asian startup MyCash Online is an online marketplace designed for migrant workers in Malaysia and Singapore. It provides easy, secure and convenient services to the underbanked.
MyCash Online offers an e-wallet service that allows users to reload phone credit, pay bills, buy bus tickets, and more.
Launched in 2016, the platform quickly gained international recognition, winning the first place at the Seedstars World startup competition last year. MyCash Online was also the winner of the Kuala Lumpur semi-finals of the Fintech Finals 2017.
The idea behind MyCash Online emerged following the observation that Malaysia was lacking services especially dedicated to migrant workers.
Serving the Unbanked Workers In Malaysia
Currently, there are about 3.3 million migrants in Malaysia – excluding the 2.2 million illegal workers. Many of them are blue-collar workers and do not have access to banking facilities.
MyCash Online founder and CEO Mehedi Hasan Sumon, a Bangladeshi citizen, first came to Malaysia in 2007 to complete his bachelors degree.
Speaking to Fintechnews, Mehedi explained how the idea of MyCash Online emerged:
“Both me and my co-founder Nurol were working with the migrants for quite some time. He was working for a remittance company more than 10 years in Dubai, and I was working in Malaysia with some telco’s VAS vendor.
“We had first had experience working with them, and we learnt that, payment or doing a simple transactions was a big problem for them. Most of them do not have any credit card or bank account, and they cannot purchase any product and services online. And as both of us are from Bangladesh, we saw around 5 million of migrants in Malaysia, like us, suffering every day. They always get cash salary and they do not have any way to save them securely and always lost and get robbed. We wanted to serve them and built a financial inclusive project for them.”
We are solving this issue by providing a web & app (online solution) and our agent network (offline solution), where they can purchase various services, without using any bank account or credit / debit card. In our platform, currently they can purchase mobile reload, pay bill, gift voucher, bus ticket, air ticket, digital gift, micro health insurance and also can do cross border remittance .
No Direct Competitor
We have started our operation last year April. Until today, we have served 60,000 unbanked customers and did more than 250,000 transactions worth 3.6 Million Malaysia Ringgit. We currently do not have any direct competitor. We are building MyCash as a market place and adding more and more services every month.
MyCash Online currently houses 550 independent Mobile Sales Personals who are in charge of selling the company’s services to the migrant community. So far, the company has served more than 60,000 migrant workers and managed over 250,000 transactions.
These agents – typically convenient stores, restaurants and mobile phone shops – are connected to the backend of MyCash Online either through its website or mobile app where they can then offer the various products to customers and earn a commission for the sales.
As this is mainly a prepaid business, agents buy credits in advance. This can be done in cash payment or via FPX with Mol Pay. FPX is a payment gateway that allows users to make real time online payments using their current or savings accounts.
2 Billion Unbanked People in Asia / Credit Agency, Loans, Insurance, Retirement Plans and more
To use the service, users simply need to register with a valid ID via the website or mobile app. Once the ID is verified and registration is confirmed, the person receives a temporary password and PIN via SMS. To buy any services from the marketplace, the user will be required to purchase a voucher from MyCash Online.
For the long term, Mehedi sees MyCash Online evolve into a digital bank offering a range of services through digital engagement and alternative banking facilities to the 2 billion unbanked people in Asia.
Raising Money now!
“People will be able to use our bank by a simple mobile app or website. They will able to save their hard earned salary securely and conveniently. They will be able to use that money to purchase products and services, pay bills and even transfer from one country to another,” Mehedi said. “In the future, we will also work as the credit rating agency and provide them micro loan, health insurance or even retirement savings plans.”
Currently, MyCash Online is raising its first round of funding through the PicthIN ECF platform in Malaysia. The teams believes it will be able to close the round by the end of the month. Mehedi said the company will be used to extend its business all over Malaysia, and in the last quarter of the year, MyCash Online is planning to start operations in Singapore.
This article was first published on fintechnews.sg, Featured image via MyCash Online, Facebook.
