Tranglo, a Malaysian cross-border payments firm has opened 4 new payment corridors — Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Brazil — marking the fintech’s first foray into Sub Saharan Africa and Latin America.
Tranglo enables secure and seamless cross-border payments to thousands of banks, cards, wallets, cash, and mobile operators in over 23 countries and benefits close to 500 million across its markets.
According to Tranglo CEO Jacky Lee: “It is just the first of many to come. We are already planning to expand into countries like Mexico and Argentina next, bringing our cross-border payment solutions to even more businesses in the region and beyond. We are also focusing on enhancing e-wallet support to stay ahead in the digital economy, so stay tuned for more exciting development this year.”
In 2018, Malaysian PE firm Ekuinas sold its entire 60 percent stake in Tranglo to Hong Kong-based TNG FinTech Group for $27.5 million which the firm may be using to expand and sign up partnerships in Africa and Latin America.
Last year, Tranglo partnered with Alipay to provide cross-border remittance that brings more convenient and inclusive services to consumers globally. Alipay currently serves more than 1.2 billion users around the world together with its local e-wallet partners.
Tranglo is already active in remittance corridors with partners from the UK to Australia and the deal with Alipay was to facilitate seamless cross-border remittances to users of Alipay, who will be able to receive quick and secure money transfers within the app.
Tranglo expects the collaboration to especially benefit migrant workers around the world, particularly in Asia, where the cross-border payment hub has a foothold in the remittance market through local partners.
According to World Bank data, Sub Saharan Africa is the costliest region to send remittances to, averaging 8.5% to send USD200 in the third quarter of 2020, while it costs an average of 5.8% to send the same amount to Latin America. For context, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals calls for the reduction of transaction costs to 3% by 2030.
Tranglo aims to play its part in lowering the cost of remittances in these regions. Tranglo is confident that its pricing is extremely competitive in these markets due to smart research, negotiations, integration and networking.
Sub Saharan Africa (Nigeria, Uganda and Ghana)
Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda ranked 1st, 2nd and 7th respectively in the list of top 10 largest remittance recipients in the region in 2020 and collectively, the remittance inflows for the 3 countries totalled USD25 billion, or 43% of the total value.
Tranglo’s network there includes major digital wallets, instant banking and cash pickups.
Latin America (Brazil)
Remittance inflows to Brazil were about USD3 billion in 2020. Despite forecasts of global decline in remittances due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Latin America was surprisingly resilient, in particular Brazil, which registered no contractions throughout the year.
With 75% of remittances in Latin America coming from the US, Tranglo has paved the way for a seamless payment experience by first expanding to the North American market through partnerships with market leaders such as this, integrating their cross-border infrastructure with Tranglo’s API.
Tranglo’s network in Brazil includes direct bank transfers and cash pickups.
Founded in 2008, Tranglo has offices in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta, Dubai and London. It’s global network spans more than 100 countries, 2,500 mobile operators, 1,300 banks/wallets and 130,000 cash pickup points.