D Money aims to serve unbanked women in remote areas
D Money Bangladesh launched micro-financial services through mobile phones for the first time in the country to serve the unbanked population, especially women, in remote areas by leveraging technology.
D Money, a financial technology start-up, joined hands with Uddipan Energy Ltd, a clean energy tech company, to launch the services and signed an agreement in Dhaka yesterday.
“It has always been my passion to bring technology, especially to women in Bangladesh, and I know D Money will be the catalyst in changing the game when it comes to our underprivileged population,” said Sonia Bashir Kabir, a member of the company's Board of Directors.
“We have invested in building 100 percent local software and plan to go global.”
D Money has recently raised $5 million and will begin operations soon, said Sonia Kabir, also the managing director of Microsoft Bangladesh.
The company plans to expand its team rapidly and engage in nationwide market awareness activities while investing in its home-grown software platform.
The digital platform built by D Money will take services to Uddipan beneficiaries and help loan disbursements and collections for the unbanked and under-banked people.
The platform will also help deposit receipts and refunds, and facilitate agent banking, merchant acquisitions and registrations, insurance premium collections and claim settlements and bill payments. The beneficiaries will also be able to use their existing feature phones to access financial services via the D Money platform.
Sonia Kabir has been appointed as the governing council representative of Bangladesh to the UN Technology Bank for the least developed countries. “We are excited to be a part of this journey with Uddipan and expect this to be the beginning of many such initiatives,” said Aref R Bashir, chief executive officer and managing director of D Money.
In 2006, Aref Bashir and Sonia Bashir Kabir established technology-based company Syntec and recently overhauled it to D Money.
Additionally, D Money will provide electronic customer authentication and a full range of e-commerce and other non-core financial activities, they said. Beneficiaries that do not have access to smartphones or connectivity for utilisation of D Money's m-wallet will be given a D Money NFC-enabled chip and pin cards to process transactions through branch and branchless banking, the company said in a statement.
“We are looking forward to harnessing the local talents to create a world-class digital payments platform and network, and providing innovative financial services and solutions to the people of the country,” said Aref Bashir.
D Money is well positioned to leverage technology to innovate and bring financial services to the last mile, he said.
Emranul Huq Chowdhury, chairman of Uddipan, said they are happy to be able to provide financial services digitally to the underprivileged people of Bangladesh with D Money.