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Interview: Michael Kent, CEO of Azimo, London-based international money transfer startup

Azimo, the money transfer startup, secured $20m Series B funding in May after being valued at $100m. Founded in 2012 by tech entrepreneur Michael Kent, the London-based company has positioned itself in the centre of a rapidly growing market.

With City-based startup TransferWise valued at $1bn in January, Paypal buying US mobile money transfer firm Xoom for $890 million and Euronet acquiring currency comparison site XE.com - the money transfer market is certainly the place to be.

What makes Azimo different, Michael tells me, is the startup’s unequivocal position amongst migrant workers in the UK, who are transferring significant amounts of money all over the world each year:

“People assume that migrants especially wouldn’t use Facebook or own a smartphone,” Michael explained, “It’s actually the complete opposite - we’ve found that migrants (and let’s remember these are the brightest and best of their home countries who come and seek a better life) are massively over-indexed on services like VoIP and social media and have the highest levels of smartphone ownership, so offering a mobile remittance service makes complete sense.”

Michael believes that the increasing popularity of smartphones and tablets has played a major role in the rise of mobile payments, he told me: “The smartphone and social usage mega trends of the past five years have had a massive impact on the delivery cost and availability of all financial services. For cross-border money transfer in particular it’s completely changing the game.”

The mobile world is overtaking its retail competitors, as more and more people have access to the internet at their fingertips, Michael continued: “Rather than using an inefficient and high cost network of retail locations (think the traditional Western Union outlet on the high street) with the right technology in place customers can now send money around the world digitally: through a smart phone, tablet or PC.

“It’s dramatically cheaper, more convenient, reduces risk and gives customers (eg. migrants/expats, travellers, students) more control.”

The main benefit of transferring money via a service like Azimo is, without a doubt, the financial saving, Michael said: “We started Azimo to make things cheaper (by up up to 90%) and easier and to tackle the legacy money-transfer players who have been overcharging hard-working migrants for too long.”

“Lots of sectors are now looking seriously at remittances and market activity is intense. Facebook is rumoured to filing to become an “e-money” institution.”

In a highly competitive marketplace, Michael remains positive about Azimo’s strong position. “We’re different for several reasons.” he said, “First of all, we’re digitally native and mobile first compared to legacy players. Our fees and rates are all online with no hidden charges.

“But most importantly, the scale of our network digitally is unmatched. This means we are able to serve often hard to reach corridors and provide more options for our increasingly diverse customer base.

“Our flexible service means that as well as serving migrants who transfer money online back home to support families and communities, we also support travellers and expats.

Azimo works closely with migrant communities to support the transfer of money all over the world, not just within Europe, Michael explained: “Unlike some of our competitors, we’re focused specifically on serving the European market right now, specifically amongst migrants who may earn less than the average income, and who regularly send a portion of that income home to family in places like Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and parts of Asia.

“But this also includes expats, international students and travellers who equally need low cost, high-speed, digital money transfer services.”

Given the current economic climate for businesses starting up in London, Michael argues that the talent pool in the city is well worth the likes of property and living costs, he commented: “There’s no denying that London property prices are crazy and they show no sign of calming down. That’s a key challenge for young businesses today and we’ve seen organisation move out of prime areas to the edges of the city as a result.

“We’re based just north of the city where costs are much lower (and the coffee is better too!).

“That said, because of the talent pool and forward thinking regulatory regime London is still the best place in the world to start a Fintech business and being located in the EU gives businesses a massive potential market place.”

Looking to the future, Azimo has big plans for the investment secured from its recent successful round of Series B funding, Michael concluded: “We’re growing at a rapid pace and our recent funding will only accelerate that.

“We’re excited about our future and the next phase of our business will be centred around investing in top talent to grow our team, expanding into new send and recieve markets, and developing socially-driven features that meet the needs of our connected-consumer base.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .