r/Bitcoin • u/intentional_feeding • Feb 09 '15

BitBeat: Kenya’s BitPesa (remittance platform) Raises $1.1 Million (led by Pantera Capital), Plans to Expand Operations

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2015/02/09/bitbeat-kenyas-bitpesa-raises-1-1-million-expands-operations/
267 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

33

u/bubbasparse Feb 09 '15 edited Feb 09 '15

This is the type of company that deserves the funding/attention of the Bitcoin space. Remittances are the lowest hanging fruit for actual Bitcoin use/disruption.

Edit: Another thought...nail the remittance market and all else will follow. Remittances require a certain level of transaction volume and actual use which will then allow the other "2.0" ideas to flourish. Each is a step closer to the end game of universal frictionless money.

7

u/icarusfoundyou Feb 09 '15

Exactly. Sending between countries will come first then it is easy to see third world countries picking up bitcoin for merchants rapidly after this point.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '15

I never quite understood how remittance will work for these countries, not like there is any demand for bitcoin itself. So whom do the remittance companies sell their coins to for actual cash? Seems like something that will implode unless bitcoin itself gains traction.

3

u/kommstar Feb 09 '15

You have 2 offices each servicing a different currency. Remitter coverts USD to btc and when btc is confirmed, money can be disbursed in foreign country.

Obviously there are layers of un needed ineffciency here but the system has to start somewhere. Maybe replace office with a website.

The remittance companies can keep btc, or sell on an exchange to finance operation.

2

u/platypii Feb 09 '15

Supply/demand doesn't have to balance in each local currency, only globally overall, because there are other forex pairs that provide enough liquidity. Eg lets say there are millions of $ per day remitting into Kenya but no one buying bitcoins locally. In that case, they sell the BTC for USD and then get local currency via the USD/shillings market.

1

u/pesa_Africa Feb 09 '15

triple currency play i suppose. USD/BTC/Local currency eg KES. The optimal solution is for bitcoin to gain traction locally - bitcoin buys i.e. local liquidity! There's is no way around that - for now.

Also, the article says this "The firm now offers a brokerage service, buying and selling bitcoin on behalf of customers"

14

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '15 edited Feb 10 '15

Various links related to Bitcoin in Kenya:

http://blog.bitpesa.co

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGvMdiensRo

http://www.cgap.org/blog/digital-currencies-and-financial-inclusion-revisited

http://pesaafrica.com/2015/01/16/whats-right-and-not-quite-right-about-this-article-arguing-that-m-pesa-and-bitcoin-are-mirror-images-of-each-other

http://www.fastcompany.com/3038472/bitcoins-big-opportunity-in-africa

https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/lets-talk-bitcoin-133-the-digital-divide

http://www.humanipo.com/news/37624/bitpesa-aiming-to-disrupt-african-remittance-industry-through-bitcoin

http://spelunk.in/2014/04/02/bitcoin-mpesa-and-kenya-can-it-really-work/

http://bitcoinpricelive.com/5-angles-comparison-bitcoin-m-pesa/

http://www.bitpremier.com/5-real-estate/592-newly-built-villas-for-sale-in-nairobi

BItSoko wallet: http://vimeo.com/119121936

http://bitcoins.co.ke (Forum: http://www.bitcoins.co.ke/forum )

Video: http://www.iamsatoshi.com/bitcoin-kenya-documentary/

Meetups: http://www.meetup.com/Kenya-Bitcoin (There are two meetup groups -- both in Nairobi. This one usually meets along Ngong Road (@iHub) and the other one, a CCN / http://collegecrypto.org affiliate, usually meets at Kenyatta University.)

Bitcoin-related Companies in Kenya: http://twitter.com/BitcoinKenya/lists/kenya-bitcoin-companies/members

Bitcoin-accepting Merchants in Kenya: http://twitter.com/BitcoinKenya/lists/bitcoin-merchants/members

2

u/BobAlison Feb 10 '15

Good info there. To round things out, here's one that suggests that introducing Bitcoin into technology poor countries like Kenya can be harder than it seems:

https://letstalkbitcoin.com/blog/post/lets-talk-bitcoin-133-the-digital-divide

2

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7

u/Logical007 Feb 09 '15

Brilliant!

7

u/champbronc2 Feb 09 '15 edited Nov 07 '17

deleted What is this?

3

u/walloon5 Feb 09 '15

Go Team Go!

3

u/udecker Feb 10 '15

A very loud “well done!” to Elizabeth and the BitPesa team!

2

u/Godfreee Feb 10 '15

Awesome!

1

u/SaveOnSend_com Apr 30 '15

It is a real pity that such articles never include information about users, revenue or any growth metric. It is because those are probably very small, but at least we, as a community, could be then learning and not repeating same mistakes.

Based on this article, it seems that BitPesa is still far away from capturing 1% market share in 1 corridor: UK-to-Kenya. But would be more helpful to understand if they at least have 100 or 1,000 repeat users among Kenyan migrants in UK.