Fastacash, a global platform enabling payments across social networks, has made a strategic investment in Myanmar focused company, MyPAY.
MyPAY, which is developing a mobile payment system, also has a strategic partnership with MySQUAR, a social network in Myanmar with approximately 1.5 million user accounts.
Along with the investment, fastacash will also provide the technology platform to MyPAY to enable payments through the social network. fastacash will also support MyPAY’s go-to-market activities, including market insights and global partnership management.
Through the fastacash platform, anyone using MyPAY will be able to transfer money, and airtime to their social connections, and make payments at retail points. MyPAY is expected to leverage MySQUAR’s user base of approximately 1.5 million user accounts.
“In MyPAY we have found a strong local partner. Together we will make social payments a reality – for the very first time – in one of the last large untapped markets. Building a presence in Myanmar is aligned with our strategy to be a global leader in social payments, given Myanmar’s prominence as a large domestic market and receive market for global remittances,” said Vince Tallent, Chairman and CEO of fastacash.
We see tremendous opportunity for both peer-to-peer and person-to-merchant payments in Myanmar. Together with fastacash, MyPAY is going to introduce a mobile money app, compliant with Myanmar law, to make payments easier for consumers and merchants in Myanmar. With fastacash’s technology, we are able to leverage social networks such as MySQUAR. Together, we are empowering a connected market where ninety percent of people are unbanked and underserved by traditional financial institutions,” said Nicolas Nguyen, CEO of MyPAY.
Myanmar is one of Asia’s fastest emerging economies, with its gross domestic product (GDP) rising 8.5 percent in FY2014 (IMF), and forecast to rise 7.7 percent in FY2015. McKinsey estimates the country’s economy will quadruple from US$45 billion in 2014 to US$200 billion by 2030. Economic growth in the country is expected to be tied to demographic trends and mobile and social penetration.
The country’s young population, with 47% under the age of 24, are expected to drive the consumption of mobile and social networks.
Myanmar’s mobile penetration is estimated to rise from 10.5% in 2014 to 57% in 2016, boosted by the entry of foreign telecom companies. Mobile is expected to present a huge opportunity for Myanmar; by 2016 nearly 15 million people will be able to access the internet, mainly via their mobile devices. As only 4.8% of citizens have a bank account, a large opportunity exists for mobile money services.
fastacash has live services in India, Indonesia, Russia, Singapore and Vietnam. Through partnerships with banks, money transfer operators, mobile network operators and social networks, it builds social payment capabilities within their services and mobile applications. Its partners include financial institutions such as DBS Bank (Singapore), Axis Bank (India), Oxigen Wallet (India), Techcombank (Vietnam), Doku (Indonesia), MOBI.Dengi (Russia), as well as VISA Europe.
