Doha: Companies need to continue transforming and updating their products as digital transformation intensifies and businesses are looking for new solutions, according to experts who discussed the role of digital transformation and importance of fintech companies at an online event organised by the HBKU in association with Qatar Financial Centre (QFC).
The webinar entitled ‘Islamic FinTechs and the Halal Economy’ shed light on tremendous opportunities created by halal economy across various segments. The event also included pitch presentations by Qatar-based fintech companies and successful startups.
Addressing the event, Mohamed Al Delaimi, Founder and Managing Director for SkipCash said: “We started in January last year and everything is trending up because of the digital transformation of all businesses and they want to onboard new solutions. We aim to provide a creative experience for the Qatari market and merchants through cashless transactions”.
In terms of market size based on Visa report, there is a $2.5 trillion worth of cash circulation in Central Europe, Middle East and Africa. “Focusing on Middle East it is $700bn and if you focus on Qatar there is $3bn worth of e-commerce transactions in cash and delivery and this is where we want to penetrate through our solutions,” he noted.
Speaking about the launch of services, Al Delaimi said: “We wanted to launch our services just before the World Cup because we are expecting 2 million fans coming to Doha. Our solution is to provide a unified experience for the customer which includes firstly, providing a payment app to customers to link their credit card and also for the merchants to have software POS to accept digital experience which is very convenient”.
He added: “The second phase of our payment gateway will also provide to scan with QR code and proceed with payment. We are also adding Apple Pay and Samsung Pay to provide all the payment methods for our consumers and merchants. The third product is payment link which is a trendy product for offline payment and is convenient for customers who are calling the merchants and placing the order by call, Whatsapp, or Instagram”.
Al Delaimi explained that the company also built a loyalty program on top of the payment structure for merchants to motivate and incentivise consumers while doing payments through SkipCash platform.
“We have a value proposition which is a flexible solution. We are also rolling out additional products this year which are easy to use and cost effective to help merchants digitise the payment experience of the consumers. We have 472 merchants tied with SkipCash, and they are distributed in over 660 locations in Doha. We have also passed the 30,000 mark of mobile transactions through SkipCash. And we are currently serving several business segments like entertainment, electronics, retail, jewellery, online apps, fitness and medical centres”.
He added: “We have several products and are planning to roll out in next 18 months on virtual accounts to corporate discounts, loyalty programs for which we are in discussion with one of the telecom operator to integrate the solution with SkipCash. This also includes Tap to phone which is one of the disruptive solutions recently in fintech. We are also doing seed round, and secured 30 percent of the round that we are raising. We are raising $3.8m which will help us expand our services and presence in the GCC region”.
Salah A Rustom, Chairman at CIEL Group and CIELTECH discussed the topic on ‘Trusted digital identities for smart cities and businesses.’ He noted that the company is a leader in online security and authentication solutions for over 25 years, with physical offices to provide local support in Doha and other locations for such technologies.
“Our expertise is dedicated to assist all sectors and other players serving in both Qatar and the region to digitalise and shift securely to remote digital working through a world of confidence using digital certificates which are backbone of all e-business and communications. We have a vision to transform Qatar from a user to a provider,” he added.