Singapore-based Fintech startup soCash has received a government grant of an undisclosed sum from Singapore’s central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The grant aims to help Singapore-based financial institutions and/or technology providers work on the early stage development of their products, this Proof of Concept is approved under Financial Sector Technology & Innovation (FTSI) Scheme.
Co-founder and CEO of soCash Mr.Hari Sivan said,
Its unique value proposition that turns offline retail outlets into cash withdrawal points and without the need for the customer to spend money first. Our business model avoids the need to buy anything before getting your cash, which most supermarkets force you to do. And in soCASH, the transaction happens on bank’s mobile app, so it is safer than using the card and PIN.
The idea behind soCash is letting the customers have cash without going to an ATM, and the merchant gets money credited into their account without going to the bank. Most shops prefer payments in cash over cards because there are no added fees or charges, so at the end of the day, shops that accumulate a lot of cash transactions would have to physically deposit them into banks.
In this way the merchants are able to streamline and manage their daily cash flows, by allowing soCASH to move this volume of cash via customers cash withdrawals, merchants automatically get the day’s earnings to their bank.
This also reduces the need to establish expensive ATM networks, which sometimes charge exorbitant fees for cash withdrawals. Sivan adds,
Banks pay us because we are significantly cheaper than an ATM transaction, and we bring liquidity back into their balance sheet. Cash sitting in ATMs is treated as capital outside their balance sheet. When the next billion people in Asia Pacific start their consumption journey, it will be cash driven. Banks are finding it very expensive to expand their ATMs. There is no way the current cash logistics will be able to cope up with that demand.
soCASH aims to raise a Pre-Series A round in the next six months. They had raised US$296,000 in seed funding from a group of undisclosed angel investors, past July. The startup is also looking to partner with various merchants like museums, retail stores, etc, to become cashpoints.
