Lebara and WorldRemit partner for digital remittances
WorldRemit becomes Lebara’s exclusive partner
European mobile telco Lebara has selected WorldRemit as its exclusive partner for an online money transfer service.
Previously, Lebara had a similar deal with MoneyGram, which has now come to an end, FinTech Futures understands.
The deal enables over three million Lebara Mobile and Lebara Money users to use WorldRemit’s digital money transfer service directly from the Lebara app and website. Lebara customers – foreign resident communities in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark – will be able to utilise WorldRemit’s “extensive payout network in over 145 countries and its safe, fast and low cost digital money transfer service”, the two parties say.
They add that the new offering “will provide a more convenient and lower cost alternative to the 90% of migrants who still send money through offline networks”.
The project also supports WorldRemit’s plan to serve ten million customers connected to emerging markets by 2020.
WorldRemit will benefit from co-branding in Lebara’s full retail estate stores and advertising in Lebara Mobile simpacks sold in 260,000 stores across Western Europe.
Ismail Ahmed, founder and CEO at WorldRemit, says that whilst his company has been working with telcos on the receive side, this is its “first strategic partnership” with a mobile operator on the send side.
WorldRemit handles a growing share of the $600 billion migrant money transfer market, i.e. remittances. The company says a third of its transactions go to mobile money accounts; it currently handles 74% of international money transfers to mobile money accounts globally. It adds that its customers make one million transactions every month using its app or website.
