WorkerAppz, the Canadian remittances and payments startup, will be further expanding across the GCC following a pre-seed funding round where they raised $1.5 million, and they’re now setting their sights on a $10m fundraising round.
Through strengthening its base in the UAE, WorkerAppz will expand to other GCC countries as well as expanding into Africa, Egypt and other expat driven markets.
The app is currently operational in over 100 countries on its remittances platform and 50 countries for digital wallets and bill payments. WorkerAppz’s mobile recharging service is available in 150 countries including Bahrain, Jordan, UAE, the Indian sub-continent, Southeast Asia, UK & Europe, and Bahrain.
The $10m in seed funding will enable WorkerAppz’s expansion plans into the direct-to-consumer business in UK, Europe, the Middle East and other emerging economies as of the last quarter of the year. The funds raised would also be used to acquire new licenses, staffing and scaling its technology to the next level.
Launched in 2019, WorkerAppz is a global cross-border money transfer and bill payment service targeting immigrant populations to send money to their families and friends back home.
"Taking an innovative approach to solving the problems of an extremely fragmented and complex global payments ecosystem, WorkerAppz has created a unique platform that provides accessible, fast, and reliable payment solutions," said Praveen Chandiramani, CEO, Workerappz.
Coronavirus had a negative impact on remittances and the World Bank estimates that global remittances fell by 7 percent in 2020, surpassing the 5 percent decline seen during the global financial crisis in 2009.
However, two of the world’s largest recipients of remittances, Pakistan and Bangladesh, registered a rise in flows in 2020 compared with 2019, 9 percent and 8 percent, respectively, according to World Bank data.
In the UAE, from July to September 2020, outward remittances settled through banks and exchange houses in the country reached AED40.1 billion ($10.9bn), a 7.7 percent drop from AED43.4bn recorded in the same period of 2019, according to the country’s central bank.