Money sent home by migrant workers not only helps their families, but also enables entire economies to develop. But transferring money comes at a high cost to workers, with remittance fees averaging about 6.5%. MyZoi wants to cut fees by more than half, starting with the five million low-income migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates.
MyZoi (which means “my life” in Greek) announced today it has raised $14 million from SC Ventures, a unit of Standard Chartered, and Japanese financial services group SBI Holdings. It holds two regulatory licenses from the Central Bank of the UAE and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank.
The startup has two core offerings. The first is a digital remittance service that will reduce transaction costs to less than 3%, in line with item 10c of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals 2030. The second is a payroll system created specifically for companies that employ migrant workers.
MyZoi co-founder and chief product officer Christian Buchholz first came up with the idea for the platform …
