Eversend (Visit website).
Location: Uganda | Paris
Sector: Fintech
The earliest forms of banking can be traced to the pre-colonial era, as far back as 2000 BCE. In Babylonia, palaces are known for lending and issuing from the wealth they possess. The loan offers are in form of issuing seed grains, with repayment from the harvest. And the earliest form of storage utilized was the crude money boxes. Records are made on tablets using codes. Different laws binding their activities were set up as well. Moving fast to the 15th and 16th centuries, these periods marked the witness of a massive expansion in banking. The evolution of technology had a tremendous impact on the banking systems. Telecommunication and computing brought a big change to banking operations, the emergence, and the spread of banks. Financial services continued to grow.
In the early 2000s, the merging of existing banks and the emergence of other financial institutions took place. For that reason, there was competition in the financial market community. During this period also, there was a vital shift from traditional banking to internet banking. As a result of the development in open banking in early 2015, third parties could access bank transaction data and introduced standard API and security models. Alternative to traditional banking became popular. It will lead us to the alternative banking solutions present today.
Alternative banking solution
People began to lose trust in traditional banks during the financial chaos which occurred in 2008. Therefore, tech experts leveraged technology to create a solution to bridge the gap that existed in the financial system. As such, it led to the creation of consumer banking products.
Eversend is one of the startups changing the narrative for the digital payment industry on the continent. Stone Atwine came up with the solution due to his experience with the traditional banking system. The passion exerted in creating a solution when you’ve felt the problem yourself is usually different. Because you know where the shoe hurts, the outcome will be consumer-centric.
What’s the solution?
The neo-bank provides a multi-currency wallet that allows users to receive, transfer, pay, and spend money digitally at the best rate. These transactions can occur online or offline. The product is currently available in Uganda, Kenya, and Ghana through mobile apps. The USSD code allows users to perform transactions offline with no internet connection required.
Everseed’s mission is to make digital transactions seamless for Africans. Beyond that, the startup intends to develop a solution that allows users to make money payments from abroad. The startup provides one of the biggest exchange platforms. With that, users can exchange from one currency (USD, UGX and NGN) to another at the best rates possible. The USD virtual cards allow users to save up to 13% which, is unattainable with the local currency card. Eversend plans to bring access to US stocks and ETFs to Africa soon.
If you want to protect and grow your wealth, it is critical to invest; not just hoard the money in your bank accounts. Sign up to join the waitlist. Oops! I’m unable to request early access. Could it be a connection issue? Techrend Africa also hopes Eversend for business meets us well when it eventually arrives. As a business owner who cares about the smooth flow of business finances, this product is the best option to use.
A better approach
- Customer service
Delayed responses to users’ complaints or requests will make them feel unworthy. It will lead to a bad impression of the business. Why do I have to wait till eternity to get answers to my requests? Research showed that users appreciate the value of a quick response from a brand. For a business that wants to increase its customer retention and attract new leads, prioritizing quick responses is important. Simply set up auto-responses, implement customer service software. Treat users’ complaints and requests with urgency.
- App functionality
Apps help businesses increase their customer base and retain existing ones. A functional app helps to increase your return on investment. However, an unresponsive app sucks! Delayed approvals/verification, glitches, and so on frustrate users, leading to users opting out of the app. A bad user experience on an app is likely to affect the success of a business. Therefore, the app developers should give their best in providing users with the best experience while using the app.
Social media
Social media usage is one of the popular activities online. In 2020, more than 3.6 billion people were using social media. The number was projected to rise to nearly 4.4 billion by 2025. That’s huge! In order to attain optimum growth, businesses need to establish a presence on relevant social media platforms.
When building an engaging community, brand awareness and loyalty are achievable with social media. One of the best practices of social media is consistency. For a brand to be in the eyes of its audience, it is essential to post valuable content consistently. This role can be taken up by a member of the team or it could be outsourced. When social media is used well, it can help a business in diverse ways:
- Attract customers, get customer feedback and build customer loyalty.
- Increase traffic to your website and improve its rank during a search.
- Generate leads
- Increase brand awareness etc
In conclusion, following these recommendations will lead to significant growth and success of the solution. We look forward to enjoying seamless transactions all over the world with Eversend’s solution.